The Queen of Thieves-Rewritten
by CharityJingle
Summary: Robyn, the Queen of Thieves, has been on her own for most of her life. But did she resort this life of crime because she wanted too? Or because the only way to hide from a past she's tried so desperately to out run, is to hide from everything? Please welcome back Robyn in the new Re-Written version of The Queen of Thieves! (Rated M for Fowl Language and violence.)
1. 1- The Man of Tomorrow UPDATED

(This chapter has been updated. It now includes descriptions of Pre-existing characters as well as some information I forgot to add in on the first pass that will be important to later chapters. I also fixed up some grammar and dialogue. The first few chapters of this story didn't receive a proper editing session, so I'm doing that now. All current chapters will be updated before chapter 6, "Game Day," is posted.)

 **Hey Guys! I decided to write this and my X-Men rewrite at the same time because I've been wanting to start this one for ages but I wanted to finish Sapphire first, but I was losing motivation for Sapphire and I really wanted to at least start this so I can work on whichever when I have the time.**

 **I really wanted to take some time to redesign Robyn, both her outfit and herself as a character. She'll still be the same character, I just feel like now she'll be more practical and realistic.**

 **Her story arc will be the same and at the end of the story her powers will be the same too, but in the beginning she is going to be quite different power wise, she'll still be the same, or as close as I can get her where I can still be proud of her.**

 **I'm also going to be writing this story in the third person, which personally I believe I am way better at than first person, so that alone should make it better I hope.**

 **Another thing, I don't like how everyone's superhero name is "Blah Blah Girl" or "Blah Blah Boy", so in an attempt to make it a bit more "grown up", I'm going to be doing a few name changes:**

 **Saturn Girl: Saturn**

 **Lightning Lad: Lightning**

 **Bouncing Boy: Bounce**

 **Triplicate Girl: Triplicate**

 **Phantom Girl: Phantom**

 **I didn't change them too much, again I just didn't like "Boy" and "Girl". Other names will change as needed, and I'll always try to keep them close to the originals.**

 **I'm also going to write everyone as around 17-20 give or take a few characters who may fall above or below this.**

 **As with Sapphire, let me know you guys think! I love reading the comments and I'm so excited to be coming back to Robyn The Queen of Thieves.**

 **C.J.**

She sat with her legs crossed, knees held close to her body to avoid the loose wires sparking around her. She reached an armored hand up to her goggles, turning a dial on the top to brighten her view of the dark space.

"Come on…" she mumbled to herself. "Almost got it." She cut one last wire, the small blade at the end of her fingertip slowly slipping back into her armored glove. "Alright…" she wrapped her hand around the small control panel and pulled. "Come oooon." She let out a satisfied grunt as it was pulled from the wall. Her goggles auto focused on the device in front of her, allowing her to inspect its condition. "Alright. Not bad." she tucked it into the small brown bag at her side, scooping up a few loose wires and tossing them in as well.

She carefully stood, her upper torso leaving the artificial gravity bubble she'd set around her as she worked. Her tangled raven hair flew past her face to dangle above her head. She raised her right arm and the screen on her armor hummed to life. She pressed a few buttons and the gravity warp attached to the floor deactivated and reattached itself to her boot. Luckily, her boots were magnetized, so she didn't fall the 50 feet to the ground below.

She reached out with both hands and held onto a large metal pipe in the wall in front of her. With a loud clang, she wedged her boots into the corner and turned off their magnetization. The climb down from this spot was never fun. She always had to either flip herself right side up and climb down, or just risk climbing upside down. This time she opted to flip herself right side up first, as last time she just climbed she had used nearly all the battery life in her boots and gloves keeping herself in place _and_ she'd nearly been caught. Scaling the wall itself was tricky as well. She couldn't always find a foothold, but the more she came back, the more places there were for her to get her footing where she had pulled things from the wall.

Finally, she made it to the bottom of her self made tunnel. She let her feet dangle and turned on the magnetic field around her boots, swinging them up to the domed ceiling. There was a quiet thud. That was her cue to let go with her hands. Her body swung down and her feet fell flat against the ceiling with another thud. She bent towards the ceiling and pulled a scrap of metal from where she'd left it. There was a small device where it had been which had kept it from falling to the floor below. She held the metal against the hole she'd climbed out of and pointed at it with her right index finger. A small flame leapt from her fingertip and began to weld the metal back into its original place.

She barely had time to finish when she heard voices headed towards her. She swore under her breath and looked around for a place to hide. She put her hands on the ceiling and crawled until she was behind the large console in the center of the room. From where she was sitting, all she could see was a glowing symbol. Three circles arranged in an upside down triangle. The sight made her face scrunch up in an unsightly expression. She hated what that symbol meant.

A door slid open and she could finally hear who was talking.

"Are you sure we need his help?" said a voice she immediately recognized. The woman on the ceiling rolled her eyes and pulled a face that could only mean: You have got to be kidding me. She tapped a button on her goggles and a light blue dome surrounded the top of her head. "It seems a little desperate, don't you think? We'll have more luck trying to get another member of the Legion here in time than finding him."

"I know what I'm doing, Saturn." said Brainiac 5. The girl would know that electronic voice anywhere. She saw a bit of his artificial blonde hair peek behind the console and she inched herself further around the ceiling high computer. If he looked in her direction, his scanners would pick her up instantly. "Finding him will not be as hard as you are thinking. But we need to go quickly. I told Bounce to meet us in my lab." She heard Saturn sigh.

"Alright then, let's get going." they made there way (painfully slowly) to the door at the other end of the room. As soon as the psychic/cyborg duo were out of the room the girl let she shield around her head fall and ran across the ceiling to a window on the other side of the room. She slowly pushed it open and climbed onto the wall outside, her boots clicking to the metal. She pulled herself out and picked up a small device stuck on the wall next to the window and clicked it back into place on her belt. There was a quiet humming sound which signaled the rooms alarm system was rebooting. She closed the window quickly and turned off the magnetic fields on her gloves.

She tapped the wall next to the window, and her Glider turned off its camouflage. She pulled it off the wall and it extended to its full length, igniting its engines and hovering just in front of her feet. She stepped onto it as easily as if she were walking on solid ground. Another tap on her goggles and a full helmet materialized around her head. She leaned forward and the Glider set off in the direction of her home.

She slowly fell into the flow of air traffic. Flying over the city was always fun for her, seeing everyone on the ground look like bugs. She had to be sure she was well cloaked whenever she took the public route home though, it was faster, but riskier. Fortunately today she made it home without incident. It was about an hours journey from the city, which was unfortunate, because she needed to drop off her new parts, calibrate her cameras, and head immediately back into the city. Today was a busy day.

Her home was a crashed aircraft, its model was about 200 years old. For some reason, this area had been completely left alone by the city. For now. She'd had to flee quite a few times from construction crews expanding New Metropolis. Her current home was right next to a cliff however, a rocky one at that, so she'd guessed that they had no interest in moving this way yet. She angled her Glider down until it started to kick up little rocks off the ground and hopped off. The Glider deactivated and set clicked itself onto a little charging pad hidden in the ground. She stepped inside the aircraft and set her bag on the makeshift table next to the door.

She pushed her goggles up to rest on top of her head, something she only did when she was alone, and inspected the control panel she'd stolen from the Legion's headquarters. She crouched next to a mound of wires and buttons beside a large screen against the far wall, and began replacing the control panel. Once all the wires were in place she lifted it up and welded it to the wall. She pushed a few buttons then turned and activated the large screen. It was blue and fuzzy, but after a few moments different cameras began popping up on the screen that showed different rooms of the Legions base. A triumphant grin spread across her face.

"Success." She pushed a few more buttons and one camera in particular filled the whole screen. A few more buttons and staticy audio began echoing through her one room home. She let it play while she gathered what she needed for her next trip. She took off her gloves, boots, goggles, and belt, and let them recharge while she got ready.

She opened her hand-made cooler and pulled out a pop. She took a large swallow of it, set it on the lid of the cooler, and grabbed her bag. She took the wire scrap she grabbed and tossed it onto the table. Movement on the monitor caught her eye.

One member of the Legion, Triplicate, a girl with the ability to duplicate herself, had grabbed a large tarp and used her "twins" to hang it up across the lounge. Usually she was dressed in a white, orange, and purple outfit. The colors separated however, when she separated into her respective selves.

"Voila!" she exclaimed as the text _Welcome Superman_ flickered across the banner. The raven haired girl snorted. Was that who they'd gone to get? _Superman?_

"Never thought I'd agree with you, Pinky." she said to herself. "But 'desperate' is right." a small chime in the corner alerted her that her equipment had finished charging. She clasped her belt back around her hips, and her bag to that, then put on her armored gloves and boots, before sliding her goggles back over her eyes. She took a quick glance in the mirror before she left.

Her appearance always took her by surprise when she considered where she'd come from. She had long, tangled black hair that covered most of her ears. Her eyes were hidden behind dark tinted mechanical goggles she'd made herself along with her elbow length gloves and boots. She wore a high neck, sleeveless black top, a short sleeved, cropped brown jacket and torn jean shorts. She'd had the shorts for forever. They didn't start out as shorts, but whenever they'd get too short or two small, she'd cut them shorter so it didn't look awkward and resize the sides so they'd fit. They now barely reached mid-thigh and had several different patterns of cloth along the seams.

She had also 'acquired' a pair of dark brown tights last year, when the length of her shorts had made her a bit uncomfortable. They now had several holes and tears in them, which she actually liked. It made her feel intimidating in a sort of rough and experienced way, and she appreciated it due to her lack of naturally intimidating qualities. Humans had grown steadily taller over the years, the shortest women usually sitting at around 5'8" but she was only able to meet 5'8" with a bit of help from the heels of her boots.

A sudden, bright flash of light on her monitor reminded her to turn it off before she left. She walked outside and stepped back onto her Glider. It whirred to life and she slowly rose into the air, taking off towards the city again. Her target this time: The Technology of Earth Museum. She'd stolen from the building quite a few times. They always had just what she was looking for, something old enough to not pop up on scanners, but new enough to still knew their security system like she knew her own eyes. Even when they upgraded, the director would always made the dumb decision of talking about it on the news. Its like they thought people like her didn't watch the news. Shoe couldn't help but laugh at the thought.

She'd even managed to earn herself a nickname a few years ago. The Queen of Thieves. A little dramatic, she thought, but amusing nonetheless. She never sold to anyone, so even other criminals had no idea who she was. There was only a handful of people who had ever actually interacted with her in the last few years and she sincerely doubted any of them remembered her. The hour commute to 'work' passed and she finally landed on the roof of the temporarily closed museum. They had just acquired some new relics and had closed so they could market a GRAND RE-OPENING, as they often did.

Oddly though, they hadn't announced what was being brought in this time, and she wanted a little 'private tour'. She attached a small triangular device to the roof and waited for a green light to flicker on before slowly starting to carve a hole in the ceiling using a small lazer from her right glove. She set the scrap off to the side and activated night vision on her goggles. They never had the lights off like this during the day… She poked her head in through the hole, her hair falling past her head, and scanned the room. All clear. She quietly flipped through the hole and into the room, landing in a crouch. She began to make her way towards the hall, growing nervous when the screen on her goggles went fuzzy for a moment. Suddenly a warning triggered on her goggles and the words "SYSTEM MALFUNCTION" were spoken in a gravely mechanical voice in her ear.

She quickly turned and tried to jump back through the hole in the ceiling. A hot surge of electricity ran through her whole body and a scream tore itself from her throat. She stumbled. In a last attempt at a fight, she tried to turn around to see who had caught her, but her eyes closed before she could see. She felt herself falling, but she never felt herself hit the floor.

She woke up, groggy and dizzy before she'd even opened her eyes. She noticed the bed first. It had been years since she'd slept on anything other than her own worn, thin mattress, and as relaxed as it should have made her body in any other situation, it only made her heart race now. She peaked an eye open and immediately closed it, wincing at the painful stark white room.

"It's ok, we aren't going to hurt you." Said a woman's voice. She couldn't place it right now, all she could focus on was that she didn't have her goggles.

"Goggles."

"We-What?" the woman seemed confused.

"Goggles. Now."

"I need to scan your eyes for a concussion." that voice she recognized. "You could have-"

"Well _Brainiac 5_ , you should have fucking thought about that before you had your friend zap me, huh?" realizing where she was only made her angrier. "Goggles." she repeated, holding out her left hand and covering her eyes with her right arm. "They can perform a self-scan to check for concussions as long as they work, but I refuse to cooperate until I have them back so give! Me! My! Goggles! Now!" she could feel everyone in the room had been put off by her outburst, but regardless, someone set her goggles in her open hand. She quickly pulled them over her eyes, ignoring her hair tangling around the cord around her head, and let out a shaky sigh as she got her first proper glance at her environment. She wasn't at all surprised by who she saw. Saturn, about 19 she assumed, tall with blond hair, bright pink eyes, and a skin tight pink and white uniform to match. Bounce, 17 if she remembered correctly. He was a larger guy with a dark blue suit, yellow visor, and a mess of black hair sticking over them. Lightning, 20, cocky redhead with biceps much smaller than he said they were, a lightning shaped scar over his right eye, and a black and white suit with yellow lightning patterns on his shoulders and yellow boots. And finally, her least favorite, Brainiac 5. He was only 16 if she remembered correctly, with a purple and black mechanical body, pinkish purple eyes and chin length blonde hair (to this day she couldn't tell whether it was organic or artificial). There was one, however, that she didn't recognise. She could only assume that they'd been successful in their hunt for Superman. He was… smaller than she thought he'd be, and had very dorkish glasses. Her goggles flicked to life. The shock from Lightning had definitely messed them up a bit, but, aside from being a little slow, they seemed to be working fine.

"Preform self-scan." she said calmly. "Give auditory report." the goggles hummed for a moment.

"No immediate concern." the goggles spoke in a gravely, barely understandable voice. She could see the cyborg flinch at the audio quality.

"This is the _Queen of Thieves_?" Lightning said, crossing his arms. His voice sounded like an angry squirrel in her ear.

"Disappointed, Spark Plug?" she mused in response.

"We just wanted to talk to you, Qu-... do you have anything else we can call you?" Saturn asked. "Queen of Thieves seems a little formal." She girl chuckled

"Yeah, I didn't pick it." she ran a hand through her hair. She had to think for a moment. "Robyn." she could see the cyborg searching through his memory at the sound of her name.

"Robyn," Saturn repeated. "The Legion is in danger, and we think you would be able to help us, we just need-"

"And I would want to help you, why?" Robyn chuckled. "You just electrocuted and kidnapped me while I was trying to work."

"Work?" Lightning laughed.

"It's the Emerald Empress." Brainiac said finally. Whatever comment Robyn was thinking up for Lightning was quickly forgotten.

"So it's true," Bounce mumbled. "You do have a history with her."

"Yeah, you could say that." Robyn clenched her jaw.

"Please, Robyn." Saturn took a step towards her. "We'd be in your debt." Robyn bit her lip.

"Fine." she said suddenly. "I'll help, but just so I get to pound her pretty face into putty. And if I don't get to pound her pretty face into putty I'm going to be pissed." the whole group looked relieved, if somewhat worried. "I'll need my things back." Saturn nodded and with a wave of her hand, all of Robyn's things were placed on the cot next to her. She reached over and began putting it all back on. "How much time do we have?" she asked as all her equipment hummed to life.

"Honestly?" Lightning chided. "About forty minutes." Robyn nodded.

"I assume the buildings defenses are set to maximum?" she asked.

"Naturally." Brainiac responded. "They have been all day." Robyn winced visibly.

"Set them higher." she said. "If _I_ can get through them the Fatal Five sure can." Brainiac looked shocked.

"When did you get through?" Robyn chuckled.

"Literally three hours ago." She crossed her arms. Brainiac looked like his entire world had been destroyed. He was about to say something but shut his mouth and instead mumbled something along the lines of _I'll go set them higher._ They all moved to the control room where Triplicate and Phantom were trying to contact other Legionnaires. Phantom was a tall girl with long black hair, a black and white uniform and a long cape.

"I've sent a code red to every Legionnaire." Phantom said.

"And?" Lightning encouraged.

"Shrinking Violet's undercover." said one of the triplets. "Colossus is still on Brawl." Said another.

"What about Cosmic?" he asked.

"At the outpost, he would never make it in time." Saturn said worriedly.

"We're it, Sparky." said the third triplet.

"What can I do?" The man Robyn assumed was Superman said.

"If you're smart, you'll go back home." Lightning walked towards Superman.

"I'm here, I want to help!" he exclaimed. "I have super powers!"

"You've never used them!"

"I have used them!"

"Not like this you haven't." Lightning said.

"Well of course he hasn't, but I'm sure he can figure it out, there's only so much you can do with heat vision and I'm sure hurting shit is at least four of them." Robyn said walking between the pair. "Now if you two are done," She pointed to the monitor displaying the courtyard. "We have company." Everyone stared at the monitor for a moment, watching the group grow steadily closer. There was Validus, the Giant, probably fifty feet tall, walking on all fours with his brain visible through a clear dome. Robyn shivered. That had always creeped her out Mano, the man who could destroy with just a touch. Therok, half man and half machine. The persuader, who carried his large ax menacingly over his shoulder. And _Her_. The Emerald Empress. Robyns jaw started to hurt by how stiffly she was holding herself.

"Come on." Phantom said. "If we don't go out, they'll come in." everyone seemed to walk out of the room at the same time. They all stood in the courtyard, looking into the large dust cloud, watching for the Fatal Five. Phantom started to float above the rest of the group, and Robyn kicked her Glider to life and crouched as she hovered above the others. Through the smoke filling the city the Fatal Five took a step into the courtyard where everyone could finally see them. The Emerald Empress glared down at them, almost bored.

"This is _it?_ " she said over the screams and sirens. "I would have expected a bigger turnout from the _Legion of Superheroes_." she nearly spat the last words onto the concrete. Everyone stood in a ready position.

"There's five of them and ten of us." Bounce lowered his visor. "No problem, right Clark?" as if on cue, their supposed _Superman_ took off, leaving only a puff of dust where he had been standing. "Uh… We may have a problem." Robyn glared at the Empress. She couldn't care less about any one else there, all she cared about was making the _Empress's_ life hell, if only for a few minutes.

"Activate combat mode." she growled under her breath. Her equimnet whirred violently, layers sliding out and revealing several hidden miniature laser cannons she'd designed herself to lay flat against the inside of her gloves. Small energy fields also appeared around her hands and feet.

"Hm." the Empress scoffed. "It seems you're a little short handed this time."

"Bring it on, Green Queen." Lightning said. "We put you away once, we'll do it again."

"Take 'em down, boys." the Empress raised her hand and signaled the entire group to charge.

"Whatever you do, don't look directly into that eye!" Saturn yelled to the the group before they sprung into action. Robyn wanted to focus all her energy on the Empress but she was pulled away by Validus, literally. He plucked her from her glider and tossed her to the ground. When she was finally able to look up her Glider had been crush to bits. She growled and slammed her hand on the ground in frustration, the energy field around it causing the concrete to crack and splinter. She ran at Validus and jumped, with the help of her boots, several feet in the air and was able to land a solid punch on Validus's knee, causing him to howell in pain and fall to the ground.

She was taken down almost immediately after by a large shock of energy from Therok. It sent shockwaves through her equipment which in turn sent shockwaves through her whole body, causing her to fall to the ground. She was able to roll onto her back despite the tremors traveling through her body. Her eyes were wide and she worked to move any part of her body in vain. She could feel something pressed between her shoulder blades. Whatever it was was keeping her from moving. Robyn grit her teeth and tried to move her arm to grab it but all the movement did was cause another surge of electricity to shoot through her body. Soon the Legionnaires started to fall around her, until the only ones left were Saturn and herself, though she was hardly helpful at this point.

Robyn took a deep breath and tried to move in time with the tremors traveling through her body to avoid the shock. It worked surprisingly well for about fifteen seconds. Her movement must have caught the attention of the Empress, because she left her Eye to work on Saturn and floating down to her.

"My my," she sang. "Well here's a face I never thought I'd see again."

"Sc-screw y-you, S-S-Sarya." Robyn spat at the ground in front of her. The Empress chuckled and Robyn was lifted off the ground by Persuader the sudden movement sending another wave of electricity through her. "Now, now, play nice." She smirked. "You wouldn't wan-"

Just then, a crash echoed through the courtyard. Everyone who still could turned to look at whatever had caused it. Superman pulled himself, coughing, from the crash sight, now in uniform. Because apparently making sure everyone looked professional was more important than actually winning.

"Oh t-that's very-very reassuring." Robyn said through the tremors. The Empress glared at her before floating up to her position above her group. Her eye turned from Saturn and moved to her side, and Robyn was unceremoniously thrown to the floor. ' _Oh come on!'_ she screamed in her head.

"Let them go, Empress." Superman tried to sound intimidating.

"Love the cape," The Empress chided. "Very 21st century."

"Last chance." Superman said in a low voice.

"You're braver than you look." She responded slowly. "But I'm afraid you're too late. Teach him some manners." The Fatal Five rushed at him. If Robyn hadn't been in her own situation she would have felt bad for the guy, having all of the Five focusing their energy on him. She started moving with the tremors once again, trying to make her way to the remnants of her Glider, where she was hoping to leverage something against the device on her back and rip it off.

The voice in her head made her pause.

"Look at Clark," Saturn's voice echoed. Robyn repressed a shiver and continued her crawl towards what was left of her Glider. "If he's not going to give up, we can't either! You have to fight it!" the trance on everyone seemed to break just as Superman somehow dealt a massive blow to the Fatal Five. Robyn was almost to her Glider when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up as Brainiac 5 moved in front of her, trying to deactivate the device on her back. Robyn looked behind him and saw Persuader running up.

"B-Be-Behin-Be-" She tried to warn him.

"What?" Persuader was almost behind him now. She felt the device release her back and in an instant she had her weapon aimed past Brainiacs shoulder and shot Persuader in the chest. He fell with a heavy thud. She took a deep breath and lowered her weapon. When she looked at Brainiac his eyes were wide and he had his own weapon ready to fire. She chuckled. Kid had reflexes.

"Behind you." She finished. Triplicate and Phantom seemed to have taken over Persuader, so Robyn took a moment to recover from the fourth electrical shock she'd received that day. When she was finally able to stand again she looked around for anyone who needed help. . Brainiac had started to chase Therok in his battle mode (Robyn wondered why he didn't open with that), but Therok was managing to stay just out of range. Robyn shot a wire from her wrist that tangled itself in Theroks mismatched legs, sending him tumbling to the ground. When Lightning cheered she looked back, realizing the fight had pretty much finished. The Empress was frozen, and Mano and the Validus were unconscious. As soon as Persuader and Therok were thrown into the pile all five disappeared, almost immediately, in a flash of green.

"Where'd they go?" Superman sounded completely dumbfounded.

"Teleported." Brainiac explained. "They could be anywhere in the galaxy at this point." Robyn felt a bit of anger surge in her at the thought of the Sarya escaping. "But I think they got the message." Robyn trudged over to her glider. She sighed as everyone started to walk back inside. Several wires shot from both of her gloves and she started to drag the pieces back towards her home.

"Where are you going?" Brainiac asked. She looked over at him.

"I'm going home." She said without stopping.

"Robyn, you've been electrocuted several times today, you have got to be exhausted." He flew in front of her. "Just… Stay at the tower tonight, I can help you fix your Glider." she thought about it for a moment before turning around and dragging her Glider into the building.

"Fine, but I don't want you tracking me home tomorrow."

Once inside the lounge Robyn set the biggest pieces of her Glider up on the table and began her repairs.

"Do you guys always have this much fun?" Superman asked.

"Pretty much." Phantom chuckled as she hovered above him.

"I guess we'll take you home now." Brainiac sighed.

"Hold on a sec," Superman said, walking over to Brainiac. "You said you can take me back to the same moment I left, right?" Brainiac nodded and the rest of the group looked at Superman excitedly. "You know, I didn't really get a chance to see New Metropolis."

"And you didn't really get a chance to try out all your powers." Saturn added. Brainiac smiled.

"Maybe I should stay a little while longer." Superman shrugged.

"Well, as long as you're here," Brainiac grabbed a small box a drawer at the side of the room. "You'll be needing these." Robyn recognized that box and immediately tensed up. Superman put on the ring and belt, becoming an official member of the Legion of Superheroes. They all turned to Robyn. Her glare was hidden behind her goggles. Saturn walked up to her and set an identical box on the table in front of her.

"The offer stands for you too, Robyn." She said. "You really helped us today. It's yours if you want it. You wouldn't-"

"'I wouldn't' what?" Robyn stood, and everyone took a step back. "Wouldn't have to be a thief? I wouldn't have to steal my heating? I wouldn't have to live in a crashed ship and sleep on something that used to be a mattress?" the room had grown silent. "For the record, I didn't _want_ to do it. I had to. I doubt any of you remember, but _you're_ the reason I _have_ to do all of that in the first place."

"What do you-" Saturn started.

"Robyn Talvra," Brainiac interrupted. Robyn turned to him. "I thought you seemed familiar. You auditioned for the Legion about five years ago." realization flashed across the faces of all the Legionnaires.

"At least one of you remembers." she sighed and slouched back onto the couch. "In your defense, I was thirteen, and I did completely botch my audition, but it didn't make _my_ life any easier."

"What happened to you?" Triplicate asked. "That lead to-"

"The Queen of Thieves?" Robyn chuckled. "Lets just say, I was a little kid, on a planet I'd only been on for a few weeks. I didn't have any job skills, I didn't have any social skills. No one would hire me and I couldn't afford to get off the planet. I had no money so I had to steal food… I think the it started with a ham sandwich… by the time I _could_ have gotten a job I was in too deep with others and I had to lay low."

"How did you get so good with technology?" Phantom sat down next to Robyn.

"My…" Robyn paused. "My father taught me… But it's always been a… natural talent of mine." there was silence for a moment. "But that still doesn't mean-"

"Robyn," Saturn said. "It's been several years, no one in the city will recognize you, _we_ didn't even recognize you. You'd be safe here. Your criminal record could be wiped, you could start over. Have an actual home."

"Who says I want that from you?" Robyn asked quietly. Everyone in the room stayed quiet. A minute passed and Robyn sighed. "I reserve the right to change my mind about this whenever I want." The room itself seemed to smile at the release of tension, and Phantom even flung her arms around Robyn in a hug. "Ok, ok, no touchy." Phantom quickly let go. Robyn rolled her eyes and slowly opened the box, feeling everyone smiling at her. It made her feel weird. She didn't like them anymore than she had for the last five years, but having somewhere she could hide… of having people who might actually be able to help her... a real bed… It was too much to look past.

A few hours had passed since then. The rest of the group had gone on patrol, and Robyn decided to test her new flight ring by traveling back to her aircraft to move some of her things to her new room. She stumbled across the ground as she landed in front of the crashed aircraft. The flight ring would take some getting used to. She stepped inside and took a quick look around. The large case she'd borrowed clunked to the floor. She tossed in the few clothes she owned, her recharge pad, her thin blanket and pillow. She grabbed a few drinks and snacks from her cooler too.

"Seems like everything I'll need." the case seemed empty despite all that was in it. The Legion had seriously overestimated how much she would actually own. She threw a few spare parts i as well before glancing to her mirror.

Her heart was hammering in her chest as she remembered. She only ever saw them when she had to move, and she had been hoping she wouldn't have to see them again any time soon. Still, they called to her, she couldn't leave them behind. She walked over to her mirror and pulled it from the wall, letting it fall to the floor where it shattered. Then she used the tools in her glove to carve a hole in the wall. Inside was a small, outdated knife, stained with a strange dark green substance, and a photograph set face down. Her shaky hand reached inside and raised the picture. She'd covered it up with thick paper ages ago, but she knew what was inside.

She chucked the items into the suitcase and slammed it shut before dragging it outside and heading on her way home. No. Not home. She would never be home. This was just another hiding place.

 **Whelp, that's it. I did it. I started another one. Honestly I think this is a million times better than the original, but please let me know what you think in the comments! I hope you are all just as excited as me to see Robyn return! I have a bit more of her story fleshed out and I have a lot more of her character decided on.**

 **I really hope you enjoy this first chapter, and let me know if you want to see more!**

 **Thank you! Love you guys!**

 **C.J.**


	2. 2- Timber Wolf UPDATED

(This chapter has been updated. It now includes some information I forgot to add in on the first pass that will be important to later chapters. I also fixed up some grammar and dialogue. The first few chapters of this story didn't receive a proper editing session, so I'm doing that now. All current chapters will be updated before chapter 6, "Game Day," is posted.)

 **This chapter was a process, lemme tell you. I had to spend like an hour just trying to find a website that had this episode, I kept finding Man of Tomorrow and Legacy, which is the third one. I know I have the actual DVD somewhere in my house but oh my god I didn't want to do that.**

 **Another thing I realized after uploading the last chapter, I forgot to add descriptions of the pre-existing characters, which is something I wanted to do, so I'm going to do that in this chapter.** **(This was added into the revised version of chapter one.)**

 **But! I finally found it, and without further adieu, here is The Queen of Thieves Rewritten, chapter 2 Timber Wolf.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **C.J. (Kyla)**

Robyn was sat at one of the control panels in the main hub of the battle cruiser. Her eyes scanned over the screen, keeping track of the status of all the defensive systems on the ship.

"There are ships in that thing!" Superman's voice came fuzzy through the communication board, where Saturn stood. Robyn glanced at the blonde girl over her shoulder. She was only a year older than Robyn, but you couldn't tell by looking at her. She was taller and carried herself with a kind of grace and dignity that Robyn could only hope of having someday. She often caught herself straightening her posture whenever Saturn would walk into the room. Robyn cringed at the memory of the two of them looking through several archived suit designs and trying out several different code names. Eventually Saturn had given up, somehow astounded that after an entire day of moving in and out of a spandex suit, Robyn had chosen comfort over fashion, and not picked a new name.

' _It just seems stupid to me.'_ she'd said, much to the annoyance of the woman in pink. Eventually Saturn had managed to talk her into a new pair of jeans to replace her shorts and tights, yet somehow, after only a month, she had already managed to tear them in quite a few places.

"Yeah, a Morthax will eat anything." Lightnings voice crackled, bringing Robyn back to her senses. She looked away from her monitor and looked at the display screen showing Lightning and Superman flying towards a gross space blob with flailing appendages. Bounce's words, not hers. The thing was repulsive, it looked like a giant lump of bile with spiky spaghetti limbs.

"Anything I need to-" Superman started.

"Watch and learn, Superman. Watch and learn." Lightning's voice interrupted. He flew ahead of Superman and took aim at the Morthax. He shot it with an enormous blast of electricity. For a moment the Morthax started convulsing, and it looked like the mission might almost be over, but the attack was quickly sent flying back at the pair and hitting the side of the ship. An alarm started blaring and the words "Defensive Shields Internal Processor Damaged" started to echo through the room.

"Robyn!" Brainiac shouted from the other side of the hub.

"I know, I'm on it!" She stood up. "Someone watch my panel!" She ducked out of the room and ran down the hall to the maintenance shaft entrance. The ship shook a little as the Morthax hit the sides. She pulled open the door and made her way down the narrow tunnel. She had to crawl to be able to get through. Once inside she had a bit more room but she still had to duck so she didn't hit her head. She looked around for anything that could indicate the shields panel, but there were so many labels, some faded, some torn, some missing entirely, that she had to use her goggles to assist her.

"Enable word recognition." a screen popped up behind her goggles. "Shields." her goggles quickly scanned the room and found one matching panel at the back of the room. "Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me." Once she'd made her way down the hall, she opened the panel and looked inside. Several things had been knocked loose, but luckily nothing needed to be repaired, not right away at least. There was only enough room for one of her hands to fit in and she would still be able to see. When she had finally managed to get her gloved arm through, she got to work..

"Robyn!" Brainiac's voice cracked through on her ring. "What's going on down there?" She turned her head and raised the ring to her mouth.

"It's a little tight down here!" she shouted before turning off her ring. She looked back to the panel and continued working to repair the shields. After a few painful minutes she slid the final motherboard back into place and reconnected the remaining loose wires. The muffled alarm finally stopped blaring from the hallway. She had only a few moments of quiet celebration when the ship suddenly started shaking again. She hit her head god knows how many times on the roof of the maintenance shaft before she was able to re-activate her ring.

"What the hell is going on?" she shouted, trying to work towards the exit. "The shields should be up now!"

"Emergency crash landing!" She caught the tail end of Brainiac's sentence. "Get out of there, Robyn!" She started to crawl as fast as she could out of the small entry tunnel. Finally she squeezed her shoulders through the tunnel and was suddenly flung violently the rest of the way out and against the far wall. After about 30 seconds of that, she'd had more than enough and managed to activate the magnetic fields around her gloves and boots. The next time she hit a wall she stayed there, desperately hoping that it wouldn't fly off when the ship entered the atmosphere.

It took her probably a full minute to realize the ship had stopped shaking. Her boots and gloves suddenly ran out of power and , with the grace of a rhino, she dropped to the floor, landing harshly on her butt.

"Robyn?" She heard someone shout down the corridor. "Robyn!" she stood up as Brainiac ran around the corner. He was about a foot shorter shorter than her, and three years younger. His blonde hair was a bit messed up, probably from the landing, and she was sure she didn't look too great either. She would probably have a few bruises.

"Hey!" She exclaimed with a small smile. "I made it out, don't worry, you didn't lose your repair girl." Brainiac opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by Lightning running around the corner.

"Good, you're ok." the older boy clapped a hand on her shoulder, starting to guide her down the hall. "Come on, let's get out of here."Robyn and Brainiac walked behind him.

"What exactly happened up there?" she asked as she turned on her solar chargers. It would be slow, but at least she would get some power back. "We received a distress signal from the planet Rawl." he explained. "Bounce was able to land the ship with minimal damage. If you hadn't managed to get the shields up it would have been a lot worse."

"And the Morthax?" they finally made it outside with the others.

"Superman took care of it." he said. Robyn nodded and could have sworn she heard Lightning mumble something under his breath. The three of them flew down to sit with the others. Everyone looked up at the ship with a hint of sadness. This would be one hell of a clean up.

"It could be worse." Superman shrugged.

"How? We're grounded!" Bounce complained.

"Well, we could have disintegrated on reentry." Brainiac explained. Superman, Bounce, and Robyn all looked at him with strange expressions.

"Well," Robyn sighed. "Aren't you just a little ray of sunshine."

"Hate to spoil your feel good moment," came Lightnings voice from atop the ship. "But this is a rescue mission, remember?" he took off, presumably in the direction of where ever they were headed. Everyone soon kicked themselves off the ground and followed after him with Saturn trailing behind.

Robyn wasn't sure how she felt about her flight ring yet, and, much like how Bounce prefered to use his power and _bounce_ along with them instead of flying, she had been working on repairing her Glider for the last month. She was almost finished, but there were a few pieces that had taken her a full year each to complete and she wasn't sure yet whether it would be easier to update the equipment to something more modern that Brainiac could help her with or if she should stick to repairing what she already had and knew how to use.

"I'm picking up a lot of stuff moving around down there," Superman interrupted her train of thought. He was using his X-Ray vision to survey the surrounding area. "But nothing remotely human."

"Rawl is known for its abundance of wildlife." Brainiac explained. "Most you would classify as… unfriendly… Aside from Dr. Londo's research station, little else is here."

"What about you, Saturn?" Superman asked. "Sense anything?" Saturn raised her hands to her head, something she did often when using her powers. Robyn assumed it was something she'd done while learning about her powers to help her control them and it had simply become a habit.

"Everything," she sighed. "And nothing. There's just too much noise, but back at the ship I'm pretty sure something was watching us."

"Ok, now you're creepin' me out." Bounce's voice shook a little bit.

"Bingo!" Superman exclaimed. He was met with only confused looks from the rest of the group. "Oh, uh… that means I found it." he started to dive down towards the ground, everyone else following close behind. They all landed and began to walk slowly towards the front door.

"Seems pretty quiet." Lightning said. Suddenly three flood lights switched on and Robyn was the only person who didn't flinch due to the auto adjustment on her goggles. She chuckled at how funny it must have looked compared to the others. The door slid open with a loud hissing noise.

"Don't be deceived." said an unfamiliar voice. "These woods are more dangerous than you could possibly imagine." An older man walked through the door and into the bright light where everyone could see him. He was wearing a light mint green lab coat and a strange pair of yellow tinted glasses resting on the tip of his nose. His hair was a bright grey and cut very close to his head.

"Dr. Londo, I presume." Brainiac walked forward to shake the man's hand.

"Yes, yes." Dr. Londo replied quickly. He continuously glaced to either side and behind the group with wide, worried eyes. Robyn squinted and her goggles zoomed in on Dr. Londo. "Come inside, quickly. It may be safe for the Legion, but an old man like me doesn't stand a chance out here." Everyone followed him inside without another word. The door slammed shut behind them as Dr. Londo lead them through a few halls, finally turning into a large aircraft hangar.

"My repair facilities are at your disposal." He stopped walking once inside, and the group stopped behind him. "I only ask one thing in return."

"Of course!" Superman smiled. "We'll take you anywhere you need to go."

"Oh I can't leave Rawl." Dr. Londo whispered. "My work is here. That's why I called for help. What I need is for you to make it safe." he looked over his shoulder at the Legion.

"Safe from what?" Saturn asked, crossing her arms and holding them tightly around herself.

"The creature. Out there," Dr. Londo turned to face them. "This creature has destroyed everything dear to me. My research, my team… My son." he removed a small projector from his coat and handed it to Brainiac. An image flickered to life of a younger Dr. Londo and who must have been his son. "That's Brin. Remarkable young man. Takes after his father, don't you think?" a sad smile crept onto his face. "He had so much potential. But now…" he removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I want it caught. And I want it brought back to me." a heavy silence engulfed the seven of them as they realized what this creature meant to Dr. Londo.

"Don't worry." Superman walked up and placed a hand on Dr. Londo's shoulder. "We'll find your creature."

"And I'll make sure it will never hurt anyone again." a smirk tugged at Lightning's mouth.

"Thank you." The doctor smiled. "I have some machines that can help you get your ship into the hangar."

"Oh, that's no problem." Superman said. "We can handle that." Dr. Londo nodded.

"I leave this to you then." he walked passed the group and started to leave the room. "Oh, and please, do try to contain yourselves to this area. It's best that my work be left undisturbed." the door closed behind him.

"Ok, so who is staying to work on the ship and who's going to look for the... whatever it is?" Superman asked.

"I don't know about you guys," Bounce sat down on a crate near the edge of the docking bridge. "But I'm not exactly thrilled about going back out there anytime soon."

"I will stay as well." Brainiac raised his arm and a screen appeared in front of him. Robyn assumed it was a list of minimal repairs they would need to do to leave the planet.

"Well, I'm going out to look for that thing." Lightning started walking towards the door. "I think you should come too, Superman."

"Yeah." he nodded in agreement. "I have to go out anyway to get the ship back here."

"I guess I'll stay here with these two." Robyn crossed her arms. "I need to patch the shields again. That maintenance shaft, its ridiculous."

"Hey! I organized that!" Brainiac glared at her.

"When you were four?" Robyn put her hands on her hips and glared back at him. "I hit my head about eighteen times in there and I had to use one hand to work. It's so cramped and inconvenient."

"Well usually he goes down there himself and does his... weird, finger thing to get to what he needs." Bounce explained, standing to join the conversation. The others had started walking towards the door. Saturn had apparently decided to join them while Robyn was complaining about the maintenance shaft.

"Well if you're going to shout at me in the middle of a mission to go and fix something," Robyn turned to see what tools Dr. Londo had on hand. "Then we might want to move some things around."

"That is a reasonable point." he responded after a moment. Robyn looked over her shoulder at him, surprised he'd agreed with her so easily. He was stubborn when it came to the ship. "When we return to headquarters we'll move the maintenance controls to a bigger room on the ship."

"Thank you." The words felt foreign on her lips. She thought back to the last time she would have said it and actually meant it. Without dwelling too much, determined that she must have been six or seven. A few minutes passed and they had collected everything they could find and put it into a clumsy pile.

"We will definitely need to patch up the hull." Brainiac said, pulling a few tools from the pile.

"And I need to rework the shields in the maintenance shaft." Robyn said again, grabbing a few tools she knew weren't in her gloves. "I only did a temporary patch. It was only meant to last until after we'd finished with the Morthax when I could go do it properly."

"And we'll need to replace the atmospheric thrusters." Bounce chimed in. "The reentry fin on the top was definitely knocked loose too." The large door at the end of the hanger opened up and Superman flew in, carrying the ship.

"Show off." Robyn mumbled as he flew past. Brainiac took a quick look at the ship.

"Hm… This may prove to be more difficult than I thought.e have all the parts we need."

"We'll improvise." Bounce said as he picked up a few tools and slid under the ship. Brainiac glared at him.

"You can't just-"

"All we need is to get off the planet and back to headquarters." Robyn cut him off before he got too upset and picked up her own tools. "Like the maintenance controls, we'll just have to properly fix everything when we get back." She flew up to the still open door of the ship and stepped inside. She slowly made her way back down the maintenance tunnel and began repairing the shields.

When she'd patched them up during the fight with the Morthax, it was only supposed to get them through that fight. She was honestly shocked they hadn't landed on Rawl in a giant pile of ash. If they were going to get off the planed in one piece she would have to replace the wiring and main panel (which had melted because it was the wrong metal).

"Damnit." She crawled back to the hangar with Bounce and Brainiac. "Hey, Brainy," she called. "The metal I used to patch the shields is toast, what metal did you use originally?"

"It's the same as the interior walls," he responded without looking from his own repairs. "Just take what you need for now." she nodded and turned to walk back into the ship.

"Hey, Robyn wait, before you go!" Bounce called. She looked around and found him under the ship working on the atmospheric thrusters.

"What's up?" she landed next to him.

"Come down here a sec." She sighed and slid under the ship with him. "I'm not losing my mind, this doesn't fit, right?" Robyn looked at the gear lock he was talking about, her goggles automatically brightening her view. In the past, she'd stolen from the headquarters and even this ship several times, so she knew the thruster was supposed to be here, but Bounce was right. "I can't tell if the metal was warped during the landing, or if both ends are just missing a chunk."

"Maybe it got knocked loose and you don't have it lined up correctly?"

"I'm measured it eight times, I think it's lined up correctly."

"You're sure?" she turned to him. He nodded, nearly bumping his head on one of the several pipes above them. "Ok… watch your head." she activated an energy field around her right glove and held the thruster in place before activating a green blade on her left glove which stuck out just passed her closed fist. She slowly cut through the jagged edges of the gear lock until the thruster could slot easily in place. With a zap the blade disappeared and she activated the energy field around her left glove, using it to hold the thruster in place. "Ok, weld it now." after a few minutes the thruster was sitting back in its rightful position.

"Thanks, I've been trying to piece this back together for twenty minutes," he sighed.

"Why didn't you get Brainiac to help you?"

"Cause he's pissing me off right now," he answered.

"Amen to that," she crawled out from under the ship, wiped the grease from her face, and flew back up inside the ship. Before making her way _back_ through the maintenance shaft, Robyn remembered to carve a square from the wall ane bring it with her. She sat cross legged on the floor so she would have enough room to sit up straight, and started the slow process of rewiring the shields control board. She had to yank out the scrap metal she'd used for the patch and replace all the internal wires before welding the metal from the hallway into place over top of all of it.

After _yet another_ adventure out of the maintenance shaft, she made her way outside and heard what she assumed was the tail end of an argument.

"You can't substitute a plasma conduit for an injector port, Bounce!" Brainiac yelled without turning away from his work. "It's not in the schematic."

"Brainy, it's called improvising, you should try it sometime."

"A twelfth level intellect has no need for improvisation." Robyn finally reached the door.

"Fine! If you're so smart fix it yourself!" Bounce stood up and started walking to the hangar door.

"Where are you going?" Brainiac finally turned to look at him at the sound of the door opening..

"Any place you're not!"

"Dr. Londo asked us to confine ourselves to the hanger!" Brainiac tried to remind him. "He insisted!"

"So I'm improvising!" the door closed harshly behind Bounce, as if emphasizing his point. Brainiac turned to Robyn.

"Was it something I said?" he asked, scratching the back of his head. Robyn shrugged and flew up to the top of the ship to fix some of the wings that had gotten knocked out of place.

"For the record, most of what you do in combat is improvisation." she said as she powered up her gloves. He didn't respond, but she smirked when she heard him stop working for a minute. The energy fields around her glovese flickered to life yet again as she pushed against the fin. She tried to reach a hand down to weld it in place, but grunted when instead it pushed back against her and slid out of place.

"Hey, Brainy?" She called. "I can't hold this and weld at the same time, care to lend a hand?" he flew up to her without a word and welded the fin back into place while she held it steady. Before turning off the energy fields, she gave the fin a strong shake, to make sure it'd stay in place. When it didn't give way she let her gloves power down with a satisfied sigh.

"I'm not worried." Brainiac muttered to himself as he started to fly away. "There's no reason to worry."

"What?" Robyn watched him float down, almost without thinking, towards the door. "Hey wait!" She flew after.

"And even if there were, Bounce can take care of himself." She landed next to him as the door slid open.

"Brainy, what are you- Hey!"

"Little help here?!" Bounce exclaimed. He was pinned to the floor by several small floating robots who had tied him up in some sort of glowing blue rope.

"Hold still!" Brainiac shouted as he extended his fingers, attaching one to each of the robots in the corridor and zapping them until they short circuited and shut off. Brainiac and Robyn ran over to Bounce, each extending a hand to help lift him up.

"Nice save there." he said as he rose to his feet.

"Thank you," Brainiac said. "I improvised." just then a loud, animalistic cry rang through the hall, echoing disturbingly around them.

"Uh… What. the hell. Was that?" Robyn asked slowly . They all started to fly, or bounce, down the halls to the source of the noise. They came to a stop in front of a creepy, dimly lit room filled with cages, each with a different kind of appendage poking through the bars, and a table with straps attached to it in the center. "Wow," Robyn looked around. "This looks totally safe and legal."

"Don't leave the hanger, huh?" Bounce sounded irritated. "I can see why."

"I assume we'll be snooping?" Brainiac grinned.

"Oh yeah." the three of them walked cautiously into the room, making sure not to get too close to the arms reaching out from the cages. Robyns goggles automatically started scanning all the creatures in the room.

"I can't match any of these to any species I've ever heard of." She said.

"A few of these look like some images of extinct animals I've seen in history files." Brainiac said, inching closer to one of the cages. "This one kind of looks like a pig." Robyn made her way over to the table. There were several long, deep scratches and dents in its surface.

"Whatever broke out of here," she turned to the others. "I think the doc has a good reason to be scared." Bounce took a look at the scratches in the table.

Brainiac was stood in front of the computer, most likely trying to find whatever experiments Dr. Londo was doing in this room..

"There's no files on this computer." he announced. "None at all. I find it hard to believe that a scientist wouldn't have any of his research on his computer." he turned to the others. "This has been wiped, and recently."

"We should go find the others." Bounce said. Robyn and Brainiac nodded, quickly following him out of the room.

After sneaking through several halls and dodging a few robots like the ones before, they'd finally made it outside. They all crouched behind a large square transmitter near the edge of the forest. Bounce raised his hand to talk into his ring.

"Stop!" Brainiac whispered violently. "Londo will no doubt be monitoring communicator trafic. Perhaps if I think hard enough, Saturn might notice my brain waves."

"You just look constipated." Robyn said.

"Or I can just do this." Bouncing boy stood up and started waving his hands. "Hey guys! Down here!" that's when Robyn and Brainiac noticed the other three members of their group. It looked like Lightning was carrying Saturn, and Superman was carrying something large in an electronic net. They flew down to meet them. "Looks like they caught it." Lightning landed first, holding Saturn in his arms. "Uh-oh, healing trance…" Bounce walked up to Lightning. "Is she ok?"

"She better be." Lightning looked down at her.

"Whoa nice scratch." Bounce chuckled. Lightnings shirt had been torn across his chest and his skin had been scratched a bit. Not too deep, but he'd want to get it disinfected for sure. "Hope you don't turn into one of those things."

"Dr. Londo is conducting outlawed experiments on the indigenous life forms here." Brainiac explained to the others. "This creature is undoubtedly connected."

"What do you think it is?" asked Superman.

"Not 'what'," Saturn groaned suddenly. " _Who_. And you can put me down now." she glared at Lightning.

"How 'bout a little gratitude?" Lightning set her on her feet. "We just saved you from this thing." She ran her hands through her hair.

"It wasn't going to hurt me." she put her hands on her hips and glared at the redhead. "If you hadn't charged in fists-a-zapping I would have told you that." she waved her hands for dramatic effect. "I don't think Dr. Londo's been completely honest with us."

"No shit." Robyn crossed her arms as Saturn walked closer to the creature in the net.

"Uh… you're not gonna let it loose, are you?" Bounce took a step back.

"We have nothing to worry about." she said before adding a quiet _hopefully_ under her breath. She deactivated the net and the creature reached up, nearly growing three times in size. It was large, grey, and hairy with long sharp claws and pointed teeth. It stretched, letting out a growl that seemed more like a sigh of relief than anger.

"I'd feel more comfortable if we did this on the ship." Brainiac suggested.

"But I doubt _he_ would." Saturn made eye contact with the creature and raised her hands to either side of its head. "And for what I'm about to do, we need him as calm as possible." her eyes lit up. Lightning decided to charge up as well at this point.

"In case things get a little _hairy."_ he said with a grin.

"Ow… really?" Robyn turned to him, a hand over her heart in mock hurt. "That actually hurt me, Spark Plug, that actually hurt me physically." Robyns comment combined with Saturns glare got Lightning to power down with some disappointed grumbling.

Without any further distractions, Saturn closed her eyes and looked into the creatures mind. After a few seconds, it stood on its back legs and howled.

"You aren't a monster!" Saturn yelled up at it. "You have control!" the creature seemed to struggle against itself for a moment before it slowly started to shrink into something closer resembling a man.

"Interesting." Brainiac took a tentative step forward. "He must have been in some kind of super agitated state." he then began poking the creatures back.

"Oh, dude I wouldn't-"

"Do you mind?" the man cut Robyn off with a deep, gruff voice.

"See?" She gently nudged Brainy's arm.

"Have you… got a name?" Superman asked.

"His name is Brin." echoed a familiar voice. "Brin Londo." Robyn looked up to see Dr. Londo. But it was a different man than before. The man they'd met when they first landed had been scared, and sad. This man stood tall, proud, and smiling down at them from his hoverboard as they were surrounded by his many creations. "Welcome home, son." Brin began to growl quietly (Robyn was sure she did too) and the rest of the Legion readied themselves for a fight. "Well done, Legion. I could have never brought him back on my own."

"You used us to do your dirty work." Superman accused in his 'I'm-gonna-fuck-you-up' voice. "That distress call was a fake."

"There is nothing more distressing than to lose a child." Londo grinned. Brins growls grew louder and more strained.

"Brin, don't let him get to you." Saturn put a hand on his shoulder. "You're in control, remember."

"You better think about your next move, _Doctor_." Superman took a step towards the front of the group.

"How 'bout, back off!" Lightning yelled from the back of the group.

"No more experiments!" Brin shouted up to Londo. "I'm through. You'll never lay another finger on me again."

"Then you leave me no choice." Londo didn't even flinch. As if causing his child pain was not only easy for him, but enjoyable. "Take them all!" the robots and various creatures started to close in on the group. Everyone scattered, taking advantage of the momentary confusion it caused. Robyn quickly activated her equipments battle mode, careful of the power she had left as it was night time now, and started shooting at some of the robots flying above her. A creature started to charge towards her, but she didn't notice until she had barely enough time to jump out of the way. She spun around after dodging and shot a taser chord at it, shocking it until it fell unconscious. She didn't have even a second to enjoy her mini victory. She used her flight ring to avoid the barrage of lasers now aimed at her, managing to take out all but one before they landed a hit on her. A scream bubbled up in her throat as she fell to the ground, but she managed to choke it down.

"Damnit!" she looked down at the wound at her side.

The world slowly faded around her, and she was suddenly only aware of the familiar chills traveling through her body. The wound slowly started to stitch itself up at the edges.

Damnit! No!" her eyes widened. "No no no no no no stop! Stop!" she closed her eyes and focused on anything but the wound in her side, the squeals of the creatures, the sound of snapping metal and torn wires, the feel of the tree against her back, the feel of twigs tangled in her hair. She glanced down at the wound

only to make sure that it had stopped. Then she reached up to the back of her head. Her heart was pounding in her ears and her hands were shaking. Only when her hand was yanked from the back of her head did she notice Brainiac and a broken robot next to her.

"Robyn!" he yelled over the noise.

"I'm fine!" she yelled back instinctively, trying not to lose her focus. "I'm fine…" she whispered to herself.

"Come on, he's getting away!" Lightning yelled. Robyn braced herself against the tree, using the branches to pull herself to her feet. She attempted to follow, but found herself tripping with how badly she was shaking. She was stopped by Brainiac putting his arm around her waist and helping her stay balanced as they flew off towards the facility. She'd have said she could do it on her own, but she was honestly grateful. She had other things to worry about right now.

Dr. Londo had run into his main lab, where he'd tortured Brin, and released all of his creatures. They huddled around him, slowly inching closer.

"Go!" he shouted, voice trembling slightly. "Attack!" the creatures only closed in on him more. "No! Stop! I'm your master!" Just then Brin turned the corner and roared loudly into the room. Terrified, all the creatures ran from the room and out through the halls.

"I'd have let him get eaten." Lightning crossed his arms. Superman flew into the room and lifted Londo up by the front of his shirt.

"Alright, doc." his voice was low. "Start talking."

"Very well." Londo smiled, his confidence suddenly back. "What would you like to talk about first? My creations, I suppose. Perfect specimens, marvels of nature, but not nearly _human_ enough." Robyn felt herself begin to shake in rage. How was it that a parent could do such horrible things to their child when she'd… _known_ some who had given everything for theirs? He looked at Brin. "No, I needed a better subject for my crowning achievement."

"So you used your own son?" Saturn glared at him.

"To see him transformed into the most formidable creature ever created for battle." Londo suddenly grew angry. "He should be thanking me! But no… he ran away before the process was complete-!" Superman slammed him against the wall.

"Change him back!" he shouted.

"He can't, Superman." Brin finally spoke. "My DNA's been altered too much… This is as close to human as I'll ever get."

"But for how long?" Londo taunted. "A day? A week? You'll never be able to control yourself, Brin."

"Yes he will." Saturn said more to Brin than Londo. "And the Legion will be there to help."

"What about _him_?" Bounce pointed over his shoulder at Londo.

"This sector is outside any jurisdiction." Londo said, smile growing into a wicked, crooked grin. "Not even intergalactic law can touch me. And why would they? My work is a gift! I create life!"

"What you create is suffering!" Brin stopped his father's rambling. "And the forest out there is filled with it! Children expect their parents to protect them! The only thing I've ever been to you is a science experiment! Your own son!" that was the last straw for Brin. He began tearing into Londo's lab, ripping wires from the walls, throwing monitors across the room, and tearing the doors off the cages.

It took several minutes for Brin to calm down. He stood in front of the door, breathing heavily, and looked over his shoulder.

"Never. Again." and without another word, they left. They climbed aboard the ship, welcoming Brin, and pulled out of the hanger.

"I still don't see how we're leaving the planet without functioning atmospheric thrusters." Brainiac said to Bounce.

"Improvise." was all the other offered as an explanation. The real reason, Robyn was surprised Brainy hadn't noticed, was Superman carrying the ship up into orbit. After they left the atmosphere, Brainiac took Robyn and Saturn back to the makeshift hospital room they had on the ship. He saw to Saturn's wound first, because it was bigger. She had been hit in the back by a rather large lazer, while Robyn had only been grazed. Her wound was not painful, she'd had much worse, but she was growing rather exhausted trying so hard not thinking about it. Brainy sanitized, cauterized, stitched up Saturn's wound and put a bandage on it. Then he turned to Robyn's.

"Your would isn't as traumatic." he said as he began to sanitize the area. "Though you seem to be struggling far more than Saturn."

"Not all wounds are external." Even after the words had left her mouth, she still almost hadn't realized she'd said them. Much to her gratification, he didn't pry. After he'd finished she allowed herself to relax. The pain had died down enough for her own body not to recognize it as an immediate threat.

"Are you coming?" Brainiac asked her, extending a hand to help her off the cot. She ignored it and slid off on her own.

"Might as well." she said. "Not a lot else to do on this ship." he nodded and they walked in silence to the conference room, where they had holograms of other members of the Legion placed around the room.

"Well? What do ya think?" Bounce asked as he stepped away from Brin. Brin stretched his hand a bit.

"Uh… a little tight?" he said.

"You'll get used to it." Superman said. "Eventually."

"We can find you something else to wear." Saturn offered.

"Yeah, I opted out of the suit personally." Robyn raised her hand.

"It's not the uniform." he said quietly. "What if he's right? What if I can't control this monster inside of me?"

"Don't worry." Lightning put a hand on his shoulder. "We've got your back. Just watch the claws." he rubbed the bandages across his chest.

"It's a deal." Brin chuckled.

"Are you ready?" Superman smiled as he opened a black box with the belt and the ring. Brin clasped the belt around his waist and slid the ring onto his right hand. He raised his right hand and began to say the same pledge that Robyn and Superman had to say, though Robyn will admit she kind of only half meant it and had obviously dropped the last part.

"To the Legion of Superheroes I make this solemn pledge: To use my powers for good, to fight for justice, and protect the innocent. To aid my fellow Legionnaires in times of peril, and to keep their secrets safe. I choose a new name to honor the heroes of the past. I am Timber Wolf."

 **Whoo! Two chapters in two days! Please do not expect this from me for the whole story, I get busy quick these days, but I'm going to do my best! I promise!**

 **Anyway, please tell me what you thought of this chapter, I love hearing your thoughts and I hope you enjoyed!**

 **C.J.**


	3. 3- Legacy UPDATED

(This chapter has been updated. It now includes some information I forgot to add in on the first pass that will be important to later chapters. I also fixed up some grammar and dialogue. The first few chapters of this story didn't receive a proper editing session, so I'm doing that now. All current chapters will be updated before chapter 6, "Game Day," is posted.)

 **Hey guys!**

 **So real quick, in the original season 1 (I looked it up) I think Brainy was like 12, and in season 2 he was 14.**

 **Here's how I'm going to write it. Robyn is 18** **, as of like three months ago** **, and Brainy is** (As of the updates he just turned 16) **16 aaaalmost 17, like two months away** **. They probably won't** _ **actually**_ **get together until season 2 if I'm being honest, because I believe that's 2 years later, so he'll be about 18-19** **19-19 ½** **and she'll be like 20-21. I do want there to be a bit of an age gap, I think it could cause some interesting tension on Robyns side of things.**

 **Just wanted to write that quick update. I believe in the last chapter I wrote that he was a year younger, but I just wanted to clarify.**

 **If you guys want me to specify the ages I'm writing the rest of the characters, let me know and I'll leave it in the next chapters Authors Note.**

 **Also, let me know if you guys want a chapter from Brainy's POV. I won't be flip flopping between them during the chapters like in the original, as I feel that kind of breaks the feeling of immersion, but I wouldn't be opposed to writing from his perspective for a chapter.**

 **Anyway, enjoy!**

 **C.J.(Kyla)**

Robyn woke to the sound of an alarm blaring next to her ear. She shot straight up in her bed, looking frantically around her new room before realizing it was just her alarm. It had been about two months since she had joined the Legion, and she still would wake up and forget where she was. Her alarm detected that she was awake and set itself off. For years, she'd slept in three hour intervals. She never let herself fall into a complete sleep. Usually she'd just roll over and fall back asleep, but the clock read 6:00 AM, so instead she pushed off the bed and walked across the room to her closet.

She pulled on her clothes, deciding not to wear her jacket today, and slid her goggles over her head. She checked the power gauge on all her equipment before walking into the lab. Brainiac had cleared off a section of his lab for her to use while she worked on her Glider. She had decided to fix the Gilder using the same parts she had before, meaning it would take her a very long time to fix, but that she wouldn't need to get help from anyone else to do it. After a few minutes or rewiring, she waived her hand in front of the sensor, signaling for it to activate. It stuttered to life and slowly raised itself off the table. Robyn allowed a small smile to show before it, and the Glider, crashed back down to the counter.

"Damint!" She let out a long string of curse words. "This thing took me five years to finish and took Validus all of five fucking seconds to break!" With a huff she left the room. she went for a little walk around the tower to cool down and eventually found herself in the lounge. It was almost noon already, so she was surprised to find Lightning, Saturn, Brainiac and Phantom all in the room looking at their own devices.

"Don't any of you have anything better to do?" she asked as she stepped into the room. Phantom responded to her first.

"Not particularly." she didn't even look from her screen. Phantom was taller than Robyn, and the heels on her outfit didn't help. "What have you been up to?"

"Working on my Glider." Robyn moved to the couch where Saturn was sprawled out. Saturn pulled her legs, which were spread across the couch, closer to herself to make room for Robyn.

"Any luck?" Brainiac glanced from his screen.

"I finally got it to turn on at least." Robyn closed her eyes and relaxed into the couch. "That's something, I guess." the door at the end of the room suddenly slid open as Superman came back from his patrol.

"The strangest thing just happened." he said to no one in particular.

"Lemme guess," Lightning started. "You accidentally walked through another Trans-Matter Gate and ended up on Mars?"

" _Another_?" Robyn sat up. "The hell- has that happened before?"

"Very funny," Superman sighed. "No it's just-... I met this girl." Phantom immediately perked up.

"Really?" she finally tore her eyes from her screen. "What's her name? What'd she look like? Oh, is she cute?"

"Oh my god, I should have gone back to bed…" Robyn mumbled to herself as she rubbed her temples.

"I hardly got a look at her." Superman ignored Robyn's comment. "I don't even know her name!" he glanced over at Phantoms screen, which showed a pointy faced girl, dressed to her neck in bright pink, with long fiery red hair and bright green eyes framed by black winged eyeliner. "Hey, that's her!" everyone in the room huddled around him to look at the screen. "What?"

"Um," Phantom chuckled. "You know that's Alexis, right?"

"Richest girl in the galaxy," Lightning spoke up. "Even _I_ know who Alexis is."

"Wow, so impressive, Sir Zaps-a-lot." Robyn rolled her eyes and flopped herself over the rest of the now empty couch, being the only one who didn't get up to crowd Superman.

"She takes the 'privileged but misunderstood' act to a _whole_ new level." Phantom sat up straight. "And that's coming from an expert." interesting fact, Phantom was actually the daughter of the President of the Galaxy.

"She has her own private planet called Makithar, collects rare Jovian power charms," Saturn sighed and rolled her eyes. "And never wears the same shoes twice. Or- at least... I think that's what someone told me once."

"Girl's way outta your league, bud." Lightning threw his arm over Superman's shoulder.

"No one's out of Superman's league," Brainy extended his head from his chair to join the conversation. "He's _Superman_."

"Thanks Brainy," Superman chuckled. "I guess doesn't matter, really. Not like I'm ever gonna run into her again." just then, a quiet beeping from the other end of the room let them know that there was someone at the door. Superman walked over to open it and a large black and white robot with a single leg slid into the room on its wheel. It had to have been nearly 9 feet tall, it barely fit through the door. It extended its hand to Superman.

"Compliments of Alexis." it's voice echoed around the room as it dropped whatever it had been holding into Superman's hand. It bowed and slid backwards down the hall. Quite a funny sight in Robyn's opinion. Superman activated whatever had been given to him and a hologram was projected from it. Robyn was too far away to hear what it said, but she noticed small trumpets, confetti, and Alexis. The hologram ended and Superman smiled.

"Guess I have plans tonight." he seemed so excited.

"Yes you do." Brainiac finally stood and walked over to him. "You and I are scheduled for patrol.

"Oh," Superman slumped. "We are?"

"No problem,"Lightning rested his arm on Superman's shoulder. "I'll cover for ya…. See if she has any friends." he whispered.

"Superman, this is highly irregular." Brainiac turned and paced back towards C.O.M.P.U.T.O. "With the Scavengers on the loose, I've calculated the optimal schedule for reconnaissance and-"

"Wait a minute," Superman cut him off. Robyn felt herself tense up at the memory of that group. "The who?" Brainiac spun around to Superman as Robyn rose from her seat, slowly walking over to join the others.

"Didn't you read my report?" Brainiac sounded annoyed. He was met with silence. "Did any of you?!" he sighed and walked sluggishly over to his computer.

"Brainy, it was a hundred and fifty pages long," she floated after him.

"It was one hundred and thirty two, and if you had read it, you know that the Scavengers are a gang of technology thieves. My data indicates that New Metropolis is their next target."

"You needed a hundred and thirty two pages to say that?" Lightning asked as they all huddled around the computer.

"I also mapped out a patrol scheme covering the most likely targets." Brainiac pulled up said map on the monitor. "And for Superman, a little sightseeing." Brainy looked over and noticed Superman looking sadly down at the invite. He sighed. "But… I guess I can alter the plan."

"What if I make it up to you?" Superman walked over and stood next to him. "We'll patrol tomorrow. And the next night. You and me."

"Really?" Brainy almost couldn't contain his excitement as he extended his neck to look at Superman. "I mean… that would be acceptable." he looked back at his computer with a smile. Superman quickly took off down the hall to meet up with Alexis

"Do you think the Scavengers are in New Metropolis already?" Robyn asked.

"I haven't been able to track them," Brainy said. "Wherever they're hiding, they want to stay hidden."

"Robyn you used to…" Saturn paused. "Run in the same line of work… is there anything you can tell us that might help us find them?"  
"Just that they _really_ don't like me." she stepped towards the computer, her goggles quickly scanning and copying all the maps and diagrams on the monitor.

"Ok, the Scavengers make more sense than the Empress at least," Lightning said. "Seriously, who else do you have a history with? Just so we know who we can expect to storm the tower."

"A shorter list would be 'who _don't_ I have a history with?'" she turned from the monitor and adjusted her goggles. "When I was younger I did some jobs for them occasionally, I was a sort of 'independent provider.' Heard them call me that a few times. It was a nice arrangement, I got money, so I didn't have to steal my food, which was a bonus." she noticed everyone in the room look at her a bit sadly and quickly carried on. "But then they started treating me like an _actual_ part of their group. Demanded more from me, got angry with me when I didn't deliver in time, and threatened me when I didn't do things the way they wanted. I got sick of it. So, I stole back a bunch of the tech I'd gotten for them and I stopped selling."

"Well hopefully we find them before they hit their next target." Phantom said.

"If it's alright with you, Robyn," Brainiac stood from his seat. "Perhaps we could use you as a sort of... surprise factor once we locate them. I think the last place the Scavengers would look for you would be here." suddenly there was a loud alarm blaring through the room.

"See you say that," Robyn said as Brainy pulled up the security camera footage of the weapons depot down the street. It was the Scavengers.

"Looks like we found them!" Saturn exclaimed. Everyone activated their flight rings and flew from the building. They sped down the street, landing in formation on the stairs.

"They want to add the weapons inside this depot to their arsenal." Saturn used her powers to read their minds and alerted the others. Brainiac extended his arm to punch a man aiming his weapon at her.

"You wouldn't need telepathy if you'd read my report." he threw up one of his energy shields. "I've analyzed the options. Conclusion: our plan should be-"

"Keep them out of the depot?" Lightning suggested.

"Got it!" Phantom flew down the stairs and began tossing Scavengers around and short circuiting their armor. Robyns equipment shifted into combat mode as she hovered slightly above everyone, shooting tasers down at the scavengers, and blasting others away with her laser cannons.

"It's time to call Superman." Brainy's voice buzzed over the communicator.

"You know, it'd be a lot easier to listen to you if you weren't so dang bossy." Lightning flew up from the stairs. "Besides, I don't need Supermans help to handle these clowns." The Scavengers continued to push forward. Robyn decided to drop to the stairs and fight using the energy fields on her gloves and boots. One of the scavengers ran at her. She ducked under his arm and punched him, spinning around and slamming her other hand into the stomach of another, sending him flying into one of his friends, who did the same to a third, and so on until they formed a giant pile on the street below.

"Talvra!" Robyn spun around to see a Scavenger decked out in a bit more tech than the rest. "Never thought I'd see your sorry mug again." Robyn cracked a grin at him and stood ready.

"Nice to see you too Varik." he growled and lunged at her. She spun out of the way of his attack and kicked him in the back. "Now tell me, what's the _boss_ doing out in the field?" he growled louder and stood up, charging his weapon. "Oh don't tell me," Robyn laughed and dodged his attack. "You got demoted, didn't you?"

"Shut your mouth, bitch." he started to turn around. "I will-" Robyn shot a taser at him, knocking him out before he could finish.

"Always good talking with you, Varik." she quickly flew over his unconscious body and joined the rest of her team at the top of the stairs.

"You know, I think _now_ might be a good time to call Superman." Lightning said.

"What happened to 'I don't need Superman'?" Robyn readied her guns and started to fire at the Scavengers.

"Not the time, Robyn." he said, glaring at her irritably.

"I always have time to make fun of you!" she smiled at him from behind Brainy's shoulder. Brainiac raised his ring to contact Superman. After a moment, his arm fell and he stood looking completely shocked.

"Well?!" Lightning shouted.

"He- he turned off his communicator…" he turned to Lightning.

"Brainy move!" he responded. Brainiac turned in time to see a group of Scavengers coming up the side of the wall and aiming at him. Robyn turned as one of them fired.

Time seemed to slow down for the next few seconds. Robyn could see the laser pulsing, filling the air around it with energy. She took a step with her left foot and turned. Without thinking, she wrapped herself around the smaller boy. She held him in front of her so that every part of him in the way of the laser was covered. Robyn only realized what she'd done when a searing pain spread all across her back and neck.

She was vaguely aware of someone screaming, maybe it was her. There was a bright flash of light and she heard several different voices call her name. She stumbled and found herself braced against the ground. There were hands on her shoulders and her head snapped up. Brainy was looking at her with wide, worried eyes. He was saying something but she couldn't hear what. Then something very strange happened.

She smiled. And then the world went dark.

 _A small monitor sat in the corner of the room collecting dust. It used to be considered top priority that someone be sat in front of it at all times, but it had since been ruled that it was only to be checked once a year. The monitor slowly flickered to life, displaying a simple white screen. Words started to fill out across it automatically._

 _ **Embedded tracker activated. Location: New Metropolis, Earth- The Milky Way Galaxy.**_

 _But no one saw the words. The monitor had already been checked that year._

"Oh she had a little run in with the Scavengers," she heard Lightning say. "What happened to you?" he sounded so far away.

"I called you during the fight. Why didn't you answer?" Brainiac said. Robyn couldn't move. She couldn't open her eyes.

"You mean that was… I'm so sorry." Superman sighed. "I just figured it was another one of Brainy's…" what had happened? What was going on? Why couldn't she move?

"Lemme guess," Phantom spoke up. "Regularly scheduled pointless updates? No wonder he turned you off." Suddenly Robyn remembered. She realized why she couldn't move, and recognized the knitting feeling in her back. She'd lost all consciousness.

"No!" She quickly shot up pain shooting through her entire body. Her hands flew up to the back of her head, clawing at her skin.

"Whoa! Hey, Robyn it's ok, you're safe!" Lightning walked over, trying to calm her down. She was shaking. How could she have done something so stupid?!

"Your body has completely healed the wound." Brainiac said. Robyn froze. "If you can heal yourself, why didn't you when you were injured on Rawl?"

"Because I was conscious then!" She nearly screamed. "I told it not to!" she quickly glanced around the room for any reflective surface. She spotted a blank monitor and ran to it, ignoring the sharp pain in her back and tripping over the floor. She looked at her back in the reflection. Only a pale white scar remained. "Shit!"

"Robyn, why is healing a bad thing?" Saturn said in a calming voice, trying to walk towards her slowly.

"I can't-" she couldn't breathe. Her heart was pounding. "I can't stay."

"What?" Phantom tried to walk towards her.

"I have to leave. They can find me. He can find me. I have to leave. I can't stay." she tried to push past the others to the door but Superman grabbed her arm.

"Robyn, what is-"

"I have to leave!" a large burst of energy that had been building inside her finally flooded out and Superman was flung across the room. All the furniture flipped over and several monitors splintered and cracked.

 _ **Embedded tracker activated. Location: New Metropolis, Earth- The Milky Way Galaxy.**_

She heard a _click_ in the back of her head. Now she'd done it.

Robyn fell to her knees and stared at the floor. She was shaking and a few tears had fallen inside her goggles.

"Twelve years of hiding and _this_ is how-"

"Robyn," she looked up to see Brainiac knelt on the floor in front of her. She paused and looked at all of them.

"Robyn, whoever you're hiding from," Saturn crouched next to her and put a hand on her shoulder. Robyn couldn't help but relax at her touch. "We won't let them hurt you." just then an alarm started to quietly sound from the monitor to her right.

"Incoming message." Brainiac stood. "It could be the reconnaissance data I requested, or-... Oh… It's from her." he crossed his arms as Superman walked over to the monitor. Robyn stood and made her way to the couch.

That was why she'd auditioned. So the Legion could protect her. She took a deep breath. She wasn't alone. He'd have to get through the whole Legion to get to her. Unless he offered a reward.

Or if she pissed the Legion off enough.

She shivered. Suddenly she wasn't sure whether to be comforted by the fact that these people could protect her, or terrified that they could just let him take her.

Robyn stood shakily, ignoring the conversation between the others, and walked off to her room. There was a giant hole in her shirt and jacket and frankly the cold spot was not helping her mood at all. She opened her door and yanked her goggles off. They fell to the floor with a loud _clunk_ as she ripped her ruined clothes from her body. She found a new shirt, a simple black tank top, and flung herself onto her bed.

She sobbed.

What would happen if he found her? Would the Legion protect her? They said they would, but would they really? What was she to them but a criminal they owed a favor? She pulled her knees to her chest and turned her head into her pillow, ignoring the sound of whispering outside her door. She knew they wanted to ask her questions. She knew she wouldn't answer. And she knew they would leave instead of asking. They'd regret not asking. If she was uncertain about everything else, she knew they would regret taking her in.

" _Wake up, little bird," said a soothing voice. Robyn heard herself giggle and hid further under the covers. If felt like she was laying on a cloud, she couldn't remember ever laying on anything as comfortable as this. Suddenly she was lifted from the bed. Why did she feel so small? The blanket was pulled over her head and she looked up. A woman smiled down at her and Robyn felt tears prickling in her eyes._

" _Mom…?"her voice cracked._

" _Who were you expecting, Ro?" the womans deep blue eyes were sparkling, seeming to glow with a radiance Robyn hadn't seen in years. She was wearing her favorite nightgown. Bright blue. Father knew that was her favorite color. Robyn slowly reached forward and wrapped her small arms around her neck. Her mother pet her hair back and kissed her forehead. "What's the matter dear?"_

" _I miss you." she felt a tear slide down her cheek._

" _Oh, Ro," her mother pulled her away to look her in the eyes. Suddenly there was a loud bang. Robyn jumped, but her mother didn't even flinch._

" _What was that?" she started shaking._

" _You have nothing to worry about, dear." another loud bang._

" _Mom?"_

" _I'm not going anywhere." Robyn looked down and saw the blue of her mother's nightgown start to fade to red._

" _Mom!" her mother smiled._

" _I love you, my little bird."_

"MOM!" Robyn sat upright in her bed shaking and sobbing. It had been years since she had that dream. She stumbled from her bed and fell to the floor. Her sobs caught in her throat as she slid her back against the edge of her bed. She took several deep, shaky breaths through her tears.

It took her several minutes to calm herself. She hiccuped and looked up to the small mirror on the wall. She looked at her eyes. Within seconds she found her goggles and put them back in place before leaving her room. The door to the lab was in view before she realized where she was going. Working had always calmed her in the past, she hoped this time would be no different.

Once in the lab she completely tuned out everything but her work, focusing only on the sound of the wires buzzing and the quiet hum of the lights. At some point while she was working she noticed Brainiac in the room with her. She didn't know if he had been there when she arrived or if he had joined her later, but she didn't care.. He didn't say anything, just sat at the computer next to her and began typing. Several minutes, probably hours passed before either of them spoke.

"Robyn?" he said finally. She froze.

"Yeah?" she responded without looking from her Glider.

"Why did you jump in front of the blaster?" she paused. She had stayed careful for twelve years, knowing she would mess up if she wasn't careful. But, for whatever reason, the need to protect the boy next to her had been more important to her than all her years of hiding.

"I have no idea," she whispered. She didn't continue working and simply stared at her Glider. She glanced over at him and saw him typing away, deep in thought. The two fell into a slightly more comfortable silence than before. Robyn sat there in silence, closed her eyes and listened to Brainiac's fingers tapping against the screen. She tilted her head back against the headrest and let herself slip into a state of peace she hadn't been able to achieve in years. But, as with all the good that came into her life, it didn't last long.

"He's late…" Brainiac sighed.

"He went out with Alexis, she stated rather than asked. he nodded. "You two were supposed to go on patrol, right?" she looked at him. He didn't respond. Robyn looked down at her Glider. With a small sigh she packed up her tools and stood. "Come on." she walked over and clasped a hand over his shoulder. "I'll come with you instead." though she wasn't Superman, she could tell her offer had cheered him up at least a little.

"Are you sure you are well enough to go out?" he turned in his chair to look at her.

"Yeah," her back had completely healed and, as much as it scared her, the damage was done. It was only a matter of time. She might as well be useful in the time she had before her world came crashing down. "Yeah, I'm sure.""

He quickly stood and the two walked out of the building together in silence. They activated their flight rings and soared over the city.

"So what exactly are we doing right now?" Robyn asked as she looked down at the city below.

"We're doing a full scan of the city to try and locate the Scavengers hideout." he raised his arm and displayed a holographic screen showing a map of New Metropolis. "You and I are going to do a perimeter scan tonight. Tomorrow, Timber Wolf and myself are going to start working towards the center of the city." she nodded and pressed a button on the side of her goggles. Their screen tinted green and began scanning every building they passed, copying its layout and checking for anything unusual, like hollow spaces under the ground.

Twenty minutes of quiet passed and Robyn hadn't found anything she would call suspicious.

"Finding anything?" he asked. She shook her head.

"Just a few underground tunnels connecting buildings that make sense, like the courthouse and the prison, and some oddly placed offices." she turned to him. "You?" he shook his head.

"Hopefully they're closer towards the center of the city. With any luck we'll find them soon." he slowed slightly and glanced at the sunset. "Anyway, it's getting late. We should head back."

They made it back to the tower but Robyn stopped before going inside. She looked up at the sky and took a moment to watch the colors. It had been years since she'd watched a sunset. She found herself floating up to the roof without thinking, just wanting to see more of the colors.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"I'm going to watch the sunset," she replied. "It's been a while since I've seen one." she turned around to face him. "You're welcome to join me if you want." she turned around again and flew the rest of the way up to the roof, carefully taking a seat right on top.

She didn't expect him to actually join her, and was pleasantly surprised when she heard him take a seat to her left. She watched the sunset through the tinted lense of her goggles and smiled. The colors always calmed her. In a way, they comforted her. They reminded her that she had made it through another day. A calm breeze blew past her and it almost felt like the sun had wrapped its warmth around her, pulling her into its caring embrace.

"Why do you always wear those goggles?" Brainiac asked. That's when she realized he must have been staring at her. She turned slightly so she could see both the sunset and him. She took a moment to think, turning back to the lights, shivering when the warmth hit her bare arms.

"You will never have a more intimate moment with a person, or ever feel any closer to them, than when you are looking into their eyes." she said. "You can really read a person that way, as much as they may try to hide it." She sighed and grew quieter. "There are some things I'm just not ready to show." she felt him turn towards the sunset and heard him shift.

"I won't look." he said. She turned back to him, arching an eyebrow at him, though she knew he couldn't see. He had his whole body turned the other direction. "If you want to take them off… to watch the sunset… I won't look."

Almost without thinking she raised her hand to her goggles, but froze before touching them. She turned back to the sunset and held them carefully for a moment before slowly moving them to rest on the top of her head. Her eyes squinted at first, adjusting to the natural light. She took in the colors, the real colors and she couldn't help the smile that spread across her face. It had been since she had trusted someone enough to remove her goggles. Her heart was racing, worried she was wrong to trust him like this. She chanced a glance over at him, and couldn't help the smile that grew on her face to see he had kept his word, though he didn't look comfortable, stiffly turned the other chuckled and looked back at the sunset.

"As much as I hate to admit it," she leaned back on her hands, noticing that he had to fight to keep himself from looking at her as she spoke. "You aren't nearly as bad as I originally pinned you out to be." if possible, his posture stiffened even more at the comment. The sun had sunk low enough in the sky that all the reds and golds had faded from sight. She stood and slid her goggles back over her eyes. "We should go back inside." she flew in front of him, extending her hand to help him up. He looked up to her slowly and took her hand. The cold of his metallic skin on hers sent a shiver up her arm.

They flew back inside in silence, both heading back to the lab without either ever mentioning it. He took a seat back at his computer and she resumed her work on her glider. Another hour passed before Superman made his way into the room, a big, shit-eating grin on his face.

"Any luck with the scanners?" he asked.

"Their cloaking is good," Brainy replied, eyes glued to the monitor. "Scanning from the field would have been more effective, but it seems my partner forgot about our patrol shift."

"Oh no…" Superman sighed. "Brainy, I completely lost track of time."

"Robyn covered for you." he said.

"Yeah, you owe me, Superdick." she called to him as she welded a few pieces of her glider back together.

"What about tomorrow?" he suggested.

"I'll be going with Timber Wolf when he gets back from Rimbor." Brainy continued to type.

"This will never happen again, Brainy. I promise. I'm sorry." Superman sounded genuinely sorry, but Robyn had noticed that Superman tended to be a bit forgetful, even before this whole Alexis thing, so she highly doubted that promise.

"I know." Brainy said, finally looking away from his monitor.

"I'm glad you're ok, Robyn," Superman took a cautious step towards her, probably worried she'd be angry with him. She looked up at him and gave him a sad smile.

"For now."

"Superman! Come quick!" Phantom called from the other room. Superman turned the corner into the control room, Brainy and Robyn not far behind. "This just came in." she pulled up a video message of the same white and black robot who had given Superman his initial invitation.

"It's Alexis, she's in trouble! Hurry Superman." was all it said before flickering to black. Superman turned to leave, but hesitated.

"Maybe we should pass this on to the science police," he offered.

"Well, I know what Brainy would say." Phantom rolled her eyes and looked at the small green boy.

"Your friend needs you." he said. "Go."

"Brainy, if you need me here just say the word."

"It's ok," Brainy looked up from his holopad. "If anything comes up, we'll call you, so try to remember to keep your communicator on." Superman smiled at him and took off down the hall. Robyn looked after him.

"He literally got back like… eight minutes ago," she turned to the others. "How much trouble can this preppy bitch get into in eight minutes?"

"How much trouble could _you_ get into in eight minutes, Robyn?" Phantom crossed her arms and grinned at the smaller girl. Robyn opened her mouth to argue but hesitated and closed it.

"Fair point." she looked at the monitor. "So what all do we have on these guys so far? We can't just have nothing."

"Well if you look closely at this monitor," Phantom gestured to a random screen. "You can see that we have… nothing." Robyn crossed her arms and glared at her.

"Have you always been this sarcastic?" Phantom nodded and Robyn sighed. "We literally have nothing?

"Unfortunately," Brainiac chimed in. "We've scanned half the city and found no sign as to where they could be hiding." Robyn closed her eyes and rubbed her temples.

"Ok," she said. "Let me think for a second… _Usually_ , when Varik was in charge, he would build the base under a regularly trafficked area and rig it with explosives, to use as leverage." she looked up at the others. "But apparently he's been demoted, so I don't know for sure if that practice carried over to whoever is in charge now, but it might be a good place to start."

"You could have mentioned that a few days ago." Lightning said as he and Saturn joined them in the control room.

"Well I _assumed_ you would have _something_ on record with these guys," she turned her glare towards the monitor. "But apparently-" she was interrupted by Superman flying back into the room looking incredible irritated.

"She set it up." he said. "She set it up just to get me to come over."

"See?!" Robyn turned to Phantom. "I told you she couldn't have gotten in that much trouble,." Brainiac slid into his floating oval shaped chair and began to type.

"I linked the scanners to boost their range," he said a minute later. "Nothing on the Scavengers, but look at this." he pulled up an map of the galaxy.

"Looks like a legion distress signal." Lightning said. "Who is it?"

"Uncertain." Brainy replied. "I can't decode the transponder."

"No wonder," Saturn pointed to the monitor. "It's coming from inside the Ald Cloud. No one can stand that kind of radiation."

"Actually, one of us can." Brainy looked to Superman.

"Hate to ask you to leave again so soon," Robyn pat his shoulder. "Not really."

"I'm on it." Superman quickly left the building.

He had only been gone about five minutes when an alarm started blaring, signaling that the building was under attack. Saturn used her power to see outside.

"The Scavengers." a large explosion rocked the room and giant door at the end of the room had been blown open. Dozens of Scavengers poured into the room like ants.

"Thanks for coming," Lightning said as the others started to fly above the group. "You just made taking you to jail a whole lot easier." he shot a large bolt of lightning at one of the Scavengers, but it bounced right off and fired back at him, sending him flying into the computer. The rest were quickly shot down, falling, well crashing, to the floor.

"Apparently they've been upgraded." Brainiac said as they all pulled themselves back to their feet.

"You noticed." came a voice from behind the Scavengers. A large Mech-Suit stomped into the room. Through the tinted dome over her head, Robyn could barely make out the familiar, annoying pink she'd only ever seen Alexis wear. "No hard feelings, I'm just here to clear Superman's schedule."

"Wow, fangirl much?" Robyn noticed the fall had knocked out the energy field trigger on her left glove. She'd have to use something else. She pressed a different button and a bright green energy blade sizzled to life from above her wrist, the same one she'd used to help Bounce realign the thrusters on the ship, but on a much lower setting.

The Scavengers opened fire on them again and they scattered, some lunging out of the way, others opting to fly over their heads. Robyn ducked out of the way, quickly turning and darting into the mass of Scavengers. She swiped at several of them with her blade, sending shockwaves through their armor, and sending others flying into each other with her functioning energy field. Through all the commotion, Alexis fired a large blast at the center computer, filling the whole room with fire and smoke.

Everyone fled the room, and Robyn quickly lost track of the rest of her teammates. She was being chased down the hall by about five Scavengers, so she only had a moment to hope they'd all made it out ok before running off on her own. She turned a corner and… dead end. She took a deep breath as the footsteps grew louder until they were right behind her.

"Ok… Five." She quickly pushed herself off the ground, kicked off the wall, and punched one of the Scavengers into the ground, cracking the metal tiles. "Four." she swung her leg behind her, tripping another and swiping him with her blade as he fell. "Three." She jumped up, punching another in the gut and practically embedding him in the ceiling. "Two." She lowered her arm, jamming her elbow into another right between his neck and his shoulder. She spun and her other elbow connected with his nose. "One." He fell with a thud and she immediately lashed her arm back out, hitting the other one in his nose as well. Her other fist connected with his chin and he smacked into the ceiling with a loud crack and fell back to the floor.

Loud pounding from the end of the hall told Robyn that Alexis was headed this way. She frantically looked around the hall until her eyes landed on an air vent. The metal creaked and groaned as she tugged at it, but eventually it gave and flung itself from her hand, digging into the wall behind her. She quickly crawled into the vent and turned a corner, assuming Alexis didn't have any way to reach her in there.

The loud grunt she heard from the hall confirmed her assumption. Robyn made her way through the long winding tunnels for about five minutes, ignoring the pain in her shoulders from crawling, before she turned a corner and came nose to nose with a familiar head of blonde hair.

"Fuck!" she quickly raised her hand to hit whoever was in front of her before realizing who it was.

"Whoa!" Brainy jumped, hitting his head on the top of the duct. "Ow…" he rubbed the top of his head.

"Sorry, Brainy." Robyn whispered. "Needless to say, I wasn't exactly expecting anyone else to be in here with me." they sat for a moment, each silently trying to figure out how to turn around. "Let's just… here I'll just go backwards until we reach a branching path or something." he nodded and they worked their way through the tunnels, being sure to keep a foot or two distance between them. Eventually they made their way out to a hallway. Robyn exited first. She looked to the side and saw Saturn being chased by two Scavengers. Their backs were facing the pair working their way out of the tunnel.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, activating the laser cannons on her right glove and fiering at one of them. Brainy worked his way out of the tunnel and stretched over, jumping on the others back.

"Good help is so hard to find." Alexis turned the corner suddenly and fired a net from one of the canons on her arm, trapping the three together and sending them crashing to the ground. Robyns back was pressed against Saturn's, but somehow Brainy had gotten turned around. He was shorter than Robyn, but, luckily for them, he was taller than her chest, and they'd get to avoid that situation later. "You know, it never would have occured to me that I'd be so good at this kind of thing." Alexis giggled as she stomped over to them. Three Scavengers joined them, aiming their weapons at the three stuck on the ground. "This is really fun!"

Lightning and Phantom flew around the corner, noticed the others. Lightning flew up over Alexis's head and fired a large blast of electricity at the back of her Mech-suit, but the metal seemed to simply absorb the energy. Phantom then flew at her, attempting to phase through the middle of her suit to short circuit it, but she bounced off instead. Alexis swung her arm and threw Phantom back into Lightning, sending them both to the floor. Just as she was about to fire at them, whether it was a net or a laser Robyn wasn't sure, Superman broke through the wall and glared at the red head.

"Alexis!" he yelled.

"Hey." she replied in a semi-flirtatious tone.

"What are you doing?!"

"What's it look like?" she gestured to the Legionnaire's on the floor. "I'm making new friends." one of the Scavengers decided then was a good time to fire at Superman. Obviously angry, Superman flew in a circle around Alexis, knocking out all of the Scavengers in the hall. "So," Alexis's voice had grown bitter. "You still choose your teammates over _me_?"

"What do you think?" he glared at her. Her face hardened and the Mech-Suit stood taller. She sighed.

"Woodhouse!" the large black and white robot burst through the floor, though this time it was even bigger and armed with several large laser cannons. It punched Superman and sent him flying down the hall. Superman steadied himself and, in a matter of seconds, used his laser vision to cut Woodhouse up into several pieces. His metal head clattered to the floor.

"Didn't think this through, did we?" he said as he powered down. Superman flew over to the three tied by the cable and cut it loose. They quickly stood, and Robyn stretched. Her arm had been trapped around Brainy's shoulders at an uncomfortable angle the entire time. Brainy seemed stiff but relaxed as soon as he was able to take a few steps back.

"Thanks." He looked up at Superman.

"Hey, what are friends for." Superman turned to look at Alexis as Phantom and Lightning flew over to stand next to their friends.

"Alright, alright!" Alexis shrugged. "I guess I got a little carried away."

"You think?" Phantom crossed her arms. After a moment, Alexis's face contorted into some sort of half-snarl half-grin.

"On second thought, if you're not going to be my friend," she raised one of her cannons. "I don't see how you should be anyone's." she fired a consistent laser straight at Superman's chest. He closed his eyes and braced himself, and when the laser hit him he didn't budge. He slowly started to make his way towards Alexis, taking the laser with him.

"Alexis, stop!" he grunted. "You can't hurt me!" he pushed closer to her until the laser was so close to its source that the equipment malfunctioned and caused nearly half of her Mech-Suit to explode. "Alexis!" Superman flew into the smoke cloud and emerged a few seconds later carrying the, now balding, body of Alexis. Her bright pink clothes were torn and she had several scrapes and would-be bruises all over the visible patches of her skin.

"What…" she reached up and felt her head. "What did you do to me?!" without a word to her or the others, Superman flew off with her, presumably carrying her off the the Science Police.

"Personally, I think bald suits her better." Robyn earned herself some strange glances from her teammates. "What?"

"Everything that just happened," Lightning moved in front of her. "And that's the only thing you have to say?"

"Well none of you were saying _anything_ about any of it now were you." she smirked at him. "In all seriousness though, this is going to be one helluva cleanup…"

 **Whoop! Here it is! Chapter 3! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and as always please let me know what you liked or didn't like in the comments. Tell me what you want to see more of, what you want to see less of, what you're excited for, I love hearing your thoughts.**

 **I hope you're all as excited to read the next chapter as I am to write it. Specifically I'm very excited to rewrite Fear Factory and to finally get to Brain Drain, that one's going to be so much fun!**

 **Love you guys!**

 **C.J.(Kyla)**


	4. AN- Some Clarification and a Little Vote

**Hey guys! This isn't a chapter but please, read until the end, there's a few things I want to clear up, and a few things I want to ask your opinions on**

 **So firstly, I had a comment on the last chapter from Brenna Night, pointing out that there really** _ **isn't**_ **an age gap between Brainy and Robyn. Thank you so much for pointing this out, I guess I didn't explain it quite how I meant it.**

 **I didn't want there to be a huge age gap between them, just a small one to warrant her initial feelings towards him leaning closer to viewing him as a 'kid' rather than a potential love interest. Her feelings are going to take much longer to develop in this story than the original.**

 **I hope I explained that a bit better.**

 **On top of that, I'm trying to write Robyn like she thinks of herself as being older than the others due to how quickly she had to grow up and take care of herself, so in Robyn's mind there's more of a mental age gap rather than an actual physical one, and needless to say she's a little out of touch with her emotions as is.**

 **Second, the next two chapters will be Robyn POV, but Champions will be written from Brainy's perspective, since so many of you responded positively to that idea.**

 **Third, I'm currently taking some time to re-watch the entire show, seasons 1 and 2, and figure out Robyn's story for each episode, and where it will work best to fit her own personal chapters in. I just made it to season 2 and**

 **Oh**

 **My**

 **God**

 **I am so excited to write this, more so than my own original story at the moment (that probably says a lot). I'll probably end up doing the same thing with Sapphire.**

 **And this is the last thing I promise, I'd like to have a little vote.**

 **Would you guys like seasons 1 and 2 to be the same story? Or would you like Season 2 to be a new story? Maaaaaaybe if enough of you stick around that long, Maybe season 1 could be 'book 1' and then 'book 2' could be Robyn between seasons 1 and 2 doing whatever she's doing at that time, and then 'book 3' would pick up at season 2. Just a thought, lemme know what you guys think! I'd also be up for doing Season 1, the gap, and Season 2 in one single story, again, just let me know what you guys think, whatever you're most interested in.**

 **Love you guys! (I'll probably delete this when the next chapter goes up, or tack it to that Authors Note)**

 **C.J.(Kyla)**


	5. 4- Phantoms UPDATED

(This chapter has been updated. It now includes some information I forgot to add in on the first pass that will be important to later chapters. I also fixed up some grammar and dialogue. The first few chapters of this story didn't receive a proper editing session, so I'm doing that now. All current chapters will be updated before chapter 6, "Game Day," is posted.)

 **Guys I know what's going to happen every episode from here on out… oh my god I'm so excited you guys, I know the ending line for this entire story. I'm so excited.**

 **I'm so excited!**

 **Ok, so here's what's going to happen,**

 **The Queen of Thieves will end with season 1. Then, there will be a second story (I know what it will be called but you guys won't until the story has been posted) that will fill in the time gap between seasons 1 and 2. Then, a third story(which I also already know the name for) will take place during season 3. All involving Robyn, all relevant to her story. The only thing I don't have perfectly planned is the gap, but I'm working on it.**

 **So I've had this written for a while, but i wanted to write the whole story and then upload a chapter a day, but i've been so busy I literally haven't been able to touch this since i went back to school, and i felt bad keeping you guys waiting when i had something written.**

 **I can't promise when the next chapter will be, but I've already started it, but for now, here is chapter 4 Phantoms!**

 **Enjoy!**

 **C.J. (Kyla)**

Robyn huffed and picked up the brand new piece of metal paneling, holding it up to the wall so Lightning could weld it in place. After several weeks, repairs on the tower were almost completed. Alexis had really done a number on the place.

With a huff, Robyn stepped away from the wall and picked up another panel, repeating the same steps for maybe the hundredth time that day. Brainy had been spending most of his time repairing the main C.O.M.P.U.T.O console, so the rest of the repairs had been left to the other Legionnaires. Robyn and Lightning had been scheduled to repair the main hallway on the third floor, and finally, after several hours of fighting turned reluctant cooperation, they only had one panel left.

"Do you ever get sick of how often you guys have to repair everything?" she asked, lifting up the last panel. "I've only been here a few months and we've had to repair this place twice already."

"You get used to it." He shrugged and started welding. Once it was in place Robyn took a step back and smiled.

"I should talk to Brainy about using a stronger metal for the outer walls," she said mostly to herself. "If it's harder for people to crash through the clean up would be left more outside at least. Should probably upgrade the security systems too…"

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." he started to fly down the hallway. Robyn looked after him, shocked.

"Did you just _agree_ with me?" Robyn started to follow him through the halls. "Don't get used to it." He chuckled without looking at her and turned the corner towards the dorms. In spite of herself, she a smile on her face as she made her way to the lounge.

"It's rude to snoop on your friends, Brainy." she heard Saturn say. Robyn stopped and hovered just outside the doorway. Brainy watched Saturn leave and turned back to his computer with a small sigh. He hadn't noticed Robyn yet, which she decided to take advantage of. She flew up to him so he wouldn't hear her footsteps and hovered right behind his head.

"What was that about?" she spoke just slightly louder than was necessary. He jumped and tried to spin around at the same time which caused him to fall out of his floating chair and tumbled to the floor in a very dramatic way. She got a weird feeling in her chest when he glared up at her, like a rock on her chest. This feeling had become quite familiar to her since she came to live with the Legion.

"Sorry," She chuckled and flew behind him, grabbed under his arms, and tried to help him to his feet. He jumped away from her as soon as she touched him, almost falling back to the ground but managing to stay on his feet. His eyes were wide and he appeared to be breathing a bit heavily. "What? Do I smell or something?"

"That's not…" he took a second to catch his breath. "You just startled me, that's all."

"Looks like I did a bit more than startle you," she chuckled again, letting her smile widen a bit. He quickly looked away from her, causing her to frown. "Come on, we haven't talked in like a week and a half."

"I've been busy." he replied quickly and began to walk away. She put a hand on each of his shoulders and spun him around.

"Did I do something wrong?" she was more than a little angry. "If I did something, just tell me." he tensed up.

"You haven't done anything wrong, Robyn," he said stiffly. "I have been having some sensory malfunctions, primarily around you, and it's a little distracting when I'm trying to work on repairs." that took her by surprise. She removed her hands quickly, not wanting to make him uncomfortable.

"What kind of sensory malfunctions?" she tilted her head.

"Well right now, for example, I locked up when you touched me," he explained. "My arms felt cold and I couldn't move." she looked down at her gloves and thought for a moment.

"Most of my gear is made from tech I stole from you and modified," she couldn't help but smile at the face he pulled at that information. "Do you think maybe its causing some sort of interference?" he was silent for a minute.

"Perhaps," he raised his arm and pulled up a holo screen. "At the moment though, I have other things to take care of first, will simply have to work around this." Robyn nodded.

"Right," she flew around him. "I'll get out of your way." she looked down the hall and smiled at someone he couldn't see. "Hey, Super- Whoa, what's with you?" she slowly flew back into the room, letting Superman through the doorway.

"There's been a situation at the museum," he explained. Robyn nodded and turned to Brainy.

"I'll go get the others." she ran to get Saturn and Timber Wolf, while Brainy and Superman alerted Lightning and Phantom. They all regrouped outside and flew off towards the museum.

"Jeez, what did you do?" Robyn exclaimed when she noticed the giant hole in the roof. "It looks like a meteor crashed through there." they flew down into the building and started to survey the area. It was a mess to say the least. There was shattered glass, splintered wood, and dented metal scattered all over the floor, and a very unsettling statue of superman… well… the knees down of it.

"Well whoever this Drax is," Lightning looked around. "He sure did a number on the place."

"Drax?" Robyn looked at Superman.

"That's what he called himself," he responded.

"Did he give you any clue where he's from?" Saturn asked.

"He did more smashing than talking." Superman scratched the back of his head and looked around.

"Well we can see that." Robyn rolled her eyes and picked up the remains of a beautiful red and blue tapestry that had been hung from the wall.

"This technology is ancient." Brainy stood up suddenly, holding some large blue device with a red screen. "Even older than Superman. It opens a gateway to a part of interdimensional space. Anything inside would be perfectly preserved in a non-corporeal molecular state."

"Um… translation please?" Phantom asked.

"A phantom. A ghost?" he offered.

"That's literally your power." Robyn rubbed her temple and let the tapestry fall to the floor.

"And the only way in or out is through a device like this." Brainy held the device up for everyone to see as they walked over.

"It sounds awful." Saturn crossed her arms and looked down at the device.

"I believe that's the intent," he explained. "It's a prison."

"So in other words," Lightning walked over to Superman. "Mr. 'I have my own museum' over here just caused a jailbreak."

"Seriously guys, I had no idea." Superman looked at the device.

"So an escaped prisoner as powerful as Superman is lose in New Metropolis," Phantom ran a hand through her hair. "The science police are going to love this."

"Uh…" Superman shifted uncomfortably. "Did I mention he had pets?" he nervously scratched the back of his head. Very slowly, everyone turned from the device to look at him with wide eyes.

"No," Robyn put her hands on her hips. "You _didn't_ mention that, actually." everyone tore their gazes from Superman as several loud sirens sounded driving past the building, blending chaotically together into a sound they associated all to well with trouble.

"That can't be good." Saturn said as she flew up and out of the hole in the roof. Once outside, Robyn could see what was causing all the commotion, though not clearly. Down the street, several vehicles appeared to have swerved and crashed at the side of the road and it looked like, from this distance, that a tiny red ant had picked up a podium and was swinging it around at the Science Police.

"That's him!" Superman had barely finished those two words before he took off towards the escapee. They all flew after him, absolutely bursting with anticipation to see what he'd gotten them into this time. As they got closer, it appeared that Superman was having a conversation with the man in red. Drax, as Robyn guessed this was, had long, greasy black hair, a wicked hooked nose, and a long red cape that almost looked metallic.

"You?" his voice was nasally. "You're this Superman they honor?"

"I think 'tolerate' is more accurate," Robyn mumbled under her breath, hearing a small chuckle from Lightning to her left.

"And I'm also the one sending you back!" as soon as the words left his mouth, Drax flew at him, punching him in the gut and dragging him crashing into one of the skyscrapers. Robyn cupped her hands around her mouth.

"Nice dodge!" she shouted after them.

" _Those_ are his pets?!" Lightning's voice cracked, which did worry Robyn a bit. If the _cockiest mother fucker she knew_ sounded worried, there was probably a reason to be. She followed his line of sight and saw why. Crawling across the street towards them were two large, green, scaly creatures with long, thick, spiked tails. Their mouths were vertical and filled with rows of sharp teeth and long forked tongues. Large eyes sat on either side of their mouths, black and glossed over like marbles. The creatures roared at them from the ground and started to fly up towards them.

"Oh and they can fly, that's just awesome." Robyn activated her equipments combat mode, hoping that the gear shift hadn't caused any interference with Brainy's servers. Saturn created a mental projection around the whole group of a large, grey, worm-like creature except with a huge mouth filled with jagged teeth.

Obviously the creatures ran from it, Robyn almost ran from it. Saturn and Phantom continued to chase the creatures with the illusion and Timber Wolf started to climb across the buildings, rather than use his flight ring, to chase after them as well. Lightning and Robyn flew off towards the skyscraper to help Superman. When they found him, he was trying to free himself from two Science Police cars that Drax was crushing him in. Robyn shot a cord that tangled Drax's feet, locking them together, and Lightning hit him with a large blast of electricity. Drax flew back into the wall, causing it to splinter. He stood with a glare that could kill and tore through the cords like they were string. The wall crumbled as he pulled himself from it.

Drax flew over to another vehicle and chucked it at Robyn and Lightning. It hit them both and they went flying. Robyn saw them approaching another building and grabbed Lightning's arm and threw him away from the ship, holding on to him and pulling herself along using his momentum. They caught themselves mid air and watch the car crash into the building.

"Nice save." he gave her a quick thumbs up before the two of them flew back to the battle. While Drax was fighting Phantom, Lightning hit him with another shock and Robyn flew behind him to kick him in the back afterwards. Drax spun around and began aiming punches at her, which, to her surprise, she somehow managed to dodge. He was fast though, really fast, and she was starting to get tired. She ducked under another of his attacks and he hit Lightning square in the chest. He crashed somewhere down the street and Drax kneed Robyn in the chest, sending her soaring a good hundred feet into the sky. If not for her flight ring, she would have fallen right back to the ground. She didn't want to think about that for too long

It took her a minute to get rid of the fogginess in her head and actually find the rest of her team. When she did, she flew down to find Drax on his knees holding his head like he was in pain.

"What's happening to him?" Superman asked. Robyn moved so she was hovering to his right. Saturn's eyes started to glow.

"It's in his head," she said. "He's hearing voices."

"That's never a good sign." Phantom said.

"That's a great sign." Robyn said at the same time. They looked at each other, realizing they would now have to fight to the death for the title of comic relief. All four jumped, ready to attack when Drax tried to stand, ready for him to strike at any second. What happened next was drastically less dramatic than they had all been expecting.

His pets flew over their heads, chased by Lightning, Brainy, and Timber Wolf, and landed on either side of him. One pulled him up by his cape and flew off before anyone had time to blink, and the other stayed behind just long enough to somehow cause an EXPLOSION that sent the whole team soaring back at least twenty feet, and flew off after its master.

"The pets have powers too?!" Lightning was the first to lift himself to his feet.

"Apparently," Robyn raised herself to her knees. Brainiac stood next and looked around at the others.

"I believe that it would be best at this point for us to return to the tower." he said. Superman spun on him.

"What? He's getting away, we should follow him!"

"Superman look at everyone, they're exhausted." Brainy gestured to the rest of them. "We need to regroup." Superman huffed but didn't continue arguing.

Eventually, once everyone was able to stand, they started the fifteen minute flight to the tower. They sluggishly made their way to the lounge where they all threw themselves onto some piece of furniture.

"We should have followed him," Superman said after nearly fifteen minutes of pacing, which had been driving Robyn crazy. "Why did Brainy insist we come back here?"

"If you were paying attention, I believe it had something to do with being exhausted." Robyn was flung lazily across the couch, arm over the side with one leg dangling off the edge.

"The Science Police don't stand a chance against this guy," Timber Wolf seemed to have been sitting on that thought for a few minutes. "They'll need our help."

"Like they'll ever ask." Phantom groaned from her chair, peeking her head up to look at him. "We'll probably get blamed for all this. Those guys hate us."

"Gee, too bad no one here can do anything about that," Lightning chided from his spot on the C.O.M.P.U.T.O dashboard.

"Layoff, Lightning." Timber Wolf elbowed him.

"Ow! I'm just saying, her mom is President of the Galaxy after all, think she could pull a few strings."

"For some reason," Superman glared at lightning and tried to pull the conversation back to the problem at hand. "Drax has a vendetta against Superman."

"Wow really?" Robyn groaned monotonously without moving. "I never would have guessed. Thank you so much for clearing up the confusion of this complex situation, Superdumb."

"This is interesting," Brainy drew all the attention in the room to the monitor in front of him. Robyn craned her neck over her shoulder awkwardly to see the monitor. "Based on scans I made during our encounter I've been able to formulate a molecular matrix of our visitor. Not only does he share your powers, Superman, but he's almost your genetic equal."

"Then I've got a lot of questions." Superman clenched his hands into fists at his sides. "And he'd better answer." Saturn walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"For now though, we should get some rest," the sound of her voice was almost calming enough to send Robyn to sleep right on the couch. She had a voice that was always so easy to listen to. "It's been a long day, and we all need to be ready for whatever comes tomorrow." without any words and several slow nods everyone trudged back to their rooms.

Robyn entered her room and took off her equipment and jacket, tossing them all lazily onto her charging station. She immediately started shivering. It had been cold in her room all during repairs but she hadn't brought it up because there was other things to focus on. She sifted through her drawers for some clean clean night clothes.

' _Oh fuck…'_ she thought to herself as she stared at the empty drawer. ' _I forgot to do my laundry..'_ she slammed it shut and turned to her bed. ' _Ok, it's fine, I can just sleep naked, I have a lock, its-'_ she shivered again and looked at her thin blanket. ' _Way too cold to do that. Okay, plan B.'_ she looked down at her clothes which were covered in dirt and dust and she didn't even want to know what else. ' _Yeah not happening.'_ she sat on her bed and ran her hands through her hair. ' _Who's room is close… Saturn's way at the end of the hall... Phantoms all the way upstairs… Lightning's right next door but he doesn't even wear normal shirts'_ she flopped backwards onto her bed. ' _Oh the joy of having roommates who wear skin tight customized suits 98.2% of the time.'_ Then she remembered Brainiac was in the room to her right. ' _He and I are about the same size,'_ she sat up. ' _thank god for small brea-... wait does he even wear normal clothes…?'_ she thought for a moment, interrupted by a long, almost painful, yawn. ' _Definitely wouldn't hurt to ask.'_

Robyn pulled herself off her bed, grabbed her goggles off of her jacket. She left the rest of her equipment behind and turned off her goggles so nothing affected him.

She knocked on his door three times, hoping he hadn't already gone to sleep, assuming he even slept. There were a lot of grey areas with this kid, and she wasn't completely sure how much he embraced the organic 5% of himself. She heard some shuffling and a few seconds later the door opened. Brainy looked nearly as startled to see who had knocked as she was to see the baggy faded blue Superman T-Shirt hanging off his shoulders. Apparently he embraced it enough to wear clothes, Robyn: 1, the Universe: 6.

"Oh my god that is precious," she couldn't help but smile at how much smaller he seemed wearing that. It was oddly captivating. His face scrunched up and he crossed his arms.

"Did you need something?" he asked.

"Oh yeah," she shook her head. "I was going to ask if you had any actual clothes, which apparently you do, and I was going to ask if I could borrow some. All my clothes are in the laundry room."

"Oh," his arms dropped. "Yes, I have a few." he stepped to the side, making enough room for her to walk through the door. "You can wait in here if you want." she nodded and stepped inside.

"Thanks." It was a pretty simple room. There was a computer system in the corner, a small closet, and something that she assumed was his bed, but it looked more like her charging station with a few blankets and a thin pillow. It took her a few seconds to notice the temperature difference. "Hey, while I'm thinking about it, do the rooms have separate heating systems?"?" Brainy looked at her from his small closet.

"Why? Is there something wrong with the heating system in your room?" he pulled a few things out of his closet.

"Yeah, for a few weeks." she shivered a little bit in response to the temperature difference. "Your room is way warmer." he must have decided on some clothes he thought would fit her.

"They're connected in pairs, which means Lightning's is probably out too. I'll take a look at that as soon as I can." he walked over to her and handed them over. "These should fit you. Oh, and here." he extended his arm to grab one of the blankets off his bed. "You can borrow this until I get to it, I've got another."

"Thanks Brainy. I'll bring these back as soon as my laundry gets rotated." She smiled down at him. "Which, unfortunately, is kind of no one's top priority right now."

"Don't worry about it." he smiled back. "I really only wear this one, the rest are just for fun." the two shared a small chuckle as she walked through the door. "Good night, Robyn."

"Night, Brainy." she shut the door and walked back to her room. "Well _that_ went better than expected." she locked her door behind her and tossed her goggles back into the corner before taking off her own clothes. Brainy had given her a dark grey t-shirt with with the Superman logo on it, a pair of pajama pants he probably hadn't touched in years and a thick brown blanket.

' _I think this qualifies as favoritism.'_ she giggled at the shirt as she pulled it over her head. While she and Brainy were roughly the same size around, she was unarguably taller, and the shirt was a little short on her, landing just a bit above her hips. Thankfully it was loose enough to still be comfortable. It was the same situation with the pants, which rested just above her ankles. Robyn took a long moment to stretch, sighing contently when her back popped in a few places, and flopped down onto her bed. She pulled the blanket around her and fell into one of the deepest sleeps she'd had in a while, even with her alarm going off every three hours.

When she finally woke up for the day it took nearly all of her energy to roll out of bed. Literally. She fell the foot drop to her floor with a soft thud, blanket still tangled up in her legs. With a loud groan, she pushed off the ground and grabbed her goggles to walk to the kitchen. There were no alarms blaring so she assumed she'd have time to eat before they left.

"Robyn, there you are!" she heard Superman exclaim as she walked into the kitchen. Lightning, Phantom, Timber Wolf, and Saturn were all in the kitchen as well, also still in their pajamas. "Everyo-... what are you wearing?" he was staring at the shirt. Why did he look redder than usual? She looked down at the shirt.

"Pajamas?" she looked at him, unsure what he seemed upset about.

"Isn't that… Brainy's shirt?" Saturn tried to hide her growing smile. If possible, Superman looked even more confused.

"Why are you wearing Brainy's pajamas?" Lightning rest his arm on the table and leaned into his hand grinning at her.

"Because mine were in the wash?" she said slowly as she walked over to the fridge to grab a drink.

"Aaand?" Phantom smiled.

" _Aaand_ I needed clean clothes to sleep in?" Robyn had no idea what was going on. "Is that against the rules or something?" she asked sarcastically.

"Not at all." Timber Wolf chuckled. Brainy walked into the room.

"... Am I missing something here…?" she was met with a long silence and the amused gaze of her companions. They all looked behind her suddenly and she turned to see Brainy standing in the doorway looking at her.

"Good… Good morning, Robyn." he looked away quickly and walked past her to the table. She looked back at the group skeptically.

"I dunno if I'd say 'good'," she started to side step out of the kitchen, never taking her eyes off the others. "Weird would be more accurate." she walked back to her room and quickly changed into her regular clothes. Instead of tossing them on the floor, like she would have done with her own clothes, she folded the clothes and blanket that Brainy had leant her and set them neatly on her pillow. A small beep in the corner told her her equipment had reached full charge. There was a satisfying _click_ as her gloves clasped themselves into place above her elbows and her boots tightened around her ankles.

"Robyn!" Saturn's voice came through her ring. "Drax was spotted by the Science Police. Meet us in the courtyard, quick."

"On my way." she ran out her door, activating her equipments combat mode as she launched off the ground, joining the others as they flew off into the city. She noticed that Brainy wasn't with them.

"Where's Brainiac?" Robyn flew next so Phantom.

"He stayed behind to run some diagnostics," she explained. "To see if he could find anything that could work against Drax."

After a few minutes of following screams and car alarms all through the city, they eventually found Drax's pets. They were running around, smashing or eating things that usually had people in them, and just casually blowing things up. Robyn was finally starting to process how insane her life was these days.

"So much for keeping things quiet." Saturn sighed.

"Close in!" Lightning started to power up. "Take 'em down." the creatures were currently running across one of the large cables keeping some of the floating buildings powered. Phantom landed on top of the cable, falling behind the others, and the creatures suddenly fell through it. When they fell, Superman and Timber Wolf flew down, each kicking one and sending them into each other. The monsters crashed to the ground, tearing up the street and spitting stone and concrete everywhere.

"These guys aren't so tough," Lightning boasted as everyone landed around the cater. Suddenly the ground erupted underneath him and he was tackled across the street by one of the monsters. Superman charged at the other, grabbing it and flying it through a building. Robyn followed him, flying through the holes in the building after him. When she made it to the next street over she found him nearly all the way inside the creatures mouth.

"So do you figure Comet and Cupid are trained or naturally this friendly?" he struggled to pry its mouth open. Saturn flew over to him and projected an image of a large red monster. The creature released Superman to try and run away but Robyn shot a cord around its back legs before it could get away. Unfortunately it only latched onto one of its legs and it started to drag her along by her glove.

"Oi you mangy mutt!" She activated the energy field around her left glove and clawed at the ground until she got enough of a grip to hold the monster in place.

Lightning flew around the corner and was about attack when the Science Police suddenly showed up and started shooting at the four of them instead of the creature. Saturn pulled Lightning behind one of the pillars of a nearby building, and Superman tugged Robyn behind a second building just as a laser whizzed passed her head and charring the ground where she had been standing. The cord snapped and the monster took off. Superman looked at her.

"You ok?" She just realized how tight a squeeze it was in this alleyway.

"Yeah, I'm fine." His face turned red again. "Are you getting sick or something? You're very red today." If possible he turned redder.

"Someone oughta remind them that we're the good guys!" Lightning shouted over the noise. They took a moment before they jumped back into action, this time having to avoid the Science Police as well as the creatures attacks. Lightning, who had clung to the monster's tail, was trying to pull it off to the side, but got frustrated with trying to dodge at the same time and shot back at one of the Police cars. It started to fall the short distance to the ground.

"Lightning!" Saturn yelled at him.

"What? They shot first!" Robyn pushed passed Superman and started to run after the monster, dodging the Science Police's attacks. She launched herself off a nearby wall and landed on its back. She wrapped her legs around its neck and tried to hold its mouth open with the energy fields on her gloves while she wrestled it to the ground. Lightning and Superman then flew in front of it and continued to attack. Saturn paused before her own attack and looked around.

"Don't you think its strange that Drax is nowhere to be found?" she asked.

"Maybe he gave up and went home." Lightning continued his attack.

"Or maybe it's the other way around!" Superman turned to fly off. "Take care of the monsters, I need to go check on Brainy!"

"Brainy?" Robyn must have loosened her grip on the monster because it bucked and she went flying into the nearest wall. How could she have forgotten about him? Was he ok? If Drax had hurt him-... Robyn opened her eyes and tried to stand up, but the force of the impact had made her dizzy. A few moments later Brainy's voice came through her communicator.

"Everyone!" she let out a loud sigh of relief, slumping back against the wall. "Drax is here, Superman needs help!"

"We're on our way," Saturn turned off her communicator. "Lightning, we'll have to leave it for the Science Police!"

"I almost got him!" were Lightnings famous last words as the creature literally threw him into a dumpster. Robyn managed to pull herself up, fly over, and pull him out.

"Come on, we gotta go!" she practically threw him in the direction of the tower. She was about to follow after him when the creature bit the back of her jacket and dragged her back down. She let out a small scream. Lightning spun around, charging up to attack when he saw her.

"Go!" she yelled as she tried to get a grip on the creature. "Make sure he's ok! I'll take care of this!" he hesitated.

"We'll be right back." and he took off towards the tower. Robyn reached behind her, getting a grip on the creatures open mouth and tazing it. It opened its mouth and dropped her to the ground. She flew up into the air, firing several cables at it while it was disoriented, hoping it would stay put long enough for the Science Police to come get it.

She took off in the direction of the tower, flying as fast as her ring would allow. There was movement on the roof. It looked like fighting. She swerved and pushed herself off of a building to gain momentum and grew even closer to the tower. She saw Brainy and the others standing on a ledge above Superman and Drax. Almost there. Brainiac tossed the device to Superman. Just a bit further. Drax attacked Superman. The weapon triggered and blasted everyone on the ledge.

"No." Drax destroyed the device. "No!" she flew even faster, watching as Superman had a very similar reaction and punched Drax through the roof of the tower. She darted down after them. He'd hit Drax through every single level. She thought about calling out to Superman, but instead, decided to use the fact that Drax didn't know she was there to her advantage, much like she had with Brainy the previous day.

Superman and Drax seemed to like punching each other through expensive walls, she had noticed. She paused on the third floor and looked at them from around the corner, waiting to see who spoke first.

"What have I ever-" she left before Superman could finish. Because the two were so dramatic, she'd known that whoever spoke second would most likely be the one to attack, catching the other as they tried to respond. This meant Drax would attack, and the walls they would go through would eventually lead them to the weapons vault. After turning a few corners she quickly blasted a hole in the floor and flew down to the weapons room. She gathered up a few things she thought might help Superman, turned off all the lights, and waited. As expected, she started to hear loud crashing and banging headed her way. With a loud crash that was probably a combination of the wall splintering a Robyns internal screaming at the thought of this fights clean up, Superman came tumbling into the room. Superman flew all the way into the back wall. Drax was nowhere to be seen so Robyn assumed he was taking his dramatic selfs time and quickly ran up to him.

"Superman!" she whispered, hoping Drax was far enough not to hear her or simply didn't care. "Quick, put these on!" He quickly stood and put on the weapons without question. He opened his mouth to speak but Drax walked into the room and Robyn barely had time to fly back through the hole she made before he saw her. She flew down the hall and after a few moments of intense smashing sounds, Superman's voice came through her ring.

"Thanks, Robyn," he said. "Do you have access to C.O.M.P.U.T.O's command systems yet?" she winced.

"Technically no," she started to fly to the control room. With all the fighting and repairs, her voice was never added to the computers voice recognition. "But I can get it, what do you need?" She flew down some more hallways until she made it to the main control room.

"I need you to turn on the towers internal defense systems," he said. "All of them." she stopped in front of the monitor.

"That's a level four command," she looked at the monitor, trying to figure out the best place to start. "Can you handle a minute on your own?"

"Yeah, get those on as fast as you can." her ring switched off.

"Uh… C.O.M.P.U.T.O.?" she asked the room.

"Voice not recognised. Access denied." echoed Brainy's voice.

"Oh, do not 'access denied' me right now you dumb hunk of scrap metal." she crouched down in front of the main panel and ripped it open. Once she had access to all the panels, switches, and wires she activated her decoding tech. She hadn't actually used any of that specific equipment since the day the Legion asked for her help against the Fatal Five.

After probably one of the longest minutes of Robyns life, she managed to override the firewall. She immediately stood back up.

"C.O.M.P.U.T.O!" she shouted again. This time the room was silent, which she took as a good sign."Activate every internal defense system we have and aim it on the greasy dickwad in red!" the tower wizzed to life and she heard several weapons start firing down the hall. She ran to go see if she could help, but a large pile of rubble fell down and blocked the door. "Damnit!" she ran back to the computer and tried to pull up camera footage on the monitors, but all that would show up were the words 'camera damaged'.

"Superman!" she said into her ring. No response "Superman!" she couldn't hear the fighting anymore, but she could hear the tower's defenses still running. Suddenly all the noise stopped. That either meant that Drax was no longer in the building for whatever reason, or that the towers weapons had been broken. She stood frozen, waiting for any sound

"Robyn!" Superman's voice came through her ring, making her jump nearly four feet in the air.

"Superman? What's going on?"

"Everyone's ok, they're all back." she heard him chuckle. "Deactivate the defenses and come to the lab."

"Uh…" she looked at the door. "That might take me a minute." she turned off her ring. "C.O.M.P.U.T.O., deactivate all internal defense systems." there was some loud clicking sounds as things were put back into place. She turned and walked to the door. Her gloves hummed to life as she activated the energy fields. Luckily all she had to move was two rather large pieces before she was able to squeeze through. She flew down the halls to the lab. She didn't think to catch her breath until she saw them all standing there. Well, except for Phantom, who was on her side holding her stomach.

"Oh my god I'm so happy you're all back." she slumped to her knees and leaned against the doorframe.

"Awe, were you worried about us?" Lightning teased. For some reason she tensed. Yes, she had been worried.

"What? No." was what she said instead. Suddenly she was scared. She hadn't been that worried about anyone since… she had to be careful from now on. "I just didn't want to clean all this by myself." Timber Wolf chuckled. "You weren't kidding when you said I'd get used to this, huh?"

No one wanted to bother with repairs that night. All they had to worry about was the security system, and for Robyn, the laundry. She had spent the last few hours of sunlight making sure all of it was done. With her now satisfyingly heavy laundry bin, she made the flight back up to the next level where her room was.

When she got there she noticed the door was open. She walked inside and found Brainy on the floor fixing a panel back into place on her wall.

"Brainy?" she got his attention. "What are you doing?"

"I'm fixing your heating unit." he stood up and looked at her. "I just finished actually."

"Wow, that was fast. Thank you." she smiled down at him. "Oh yeah, here are the clothes I borrowed from you." he took them and looked at them for a moment.

"You can keep them." he handed them back. "I really only wear the blue shirt." they both jumped at the sound of the heater humming to life. Robyn immediately relaxed when the warm air hit her. She set the basket of laundry on her bed and stood in front of the heater for a moment.

"Gah, you're awesome." she walked over to Brainy and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He immediately stiffened and she jumped back. "Sorry, forgot." she took a step back and he relaxed after a few seconds. "Seriously though, thank you."

"It's no problem," he turned towards the door. "Let me know if it breaks again, apparently Lightning was having trouble with his too." she nodded.

"Will do," she walked up to close the door behind him. "Night!"

"Good night, Robyn." he smiled at her before he walked into his own room.

Her door closed and suddenly she was angry again. She was angry at herself for letting it go this far, and without even realizing it. She felt at home here, and it scared her, because she hadn't wanted to. She hadn't wanted to become this attached, things only ever ended badly when she was attached.

She walked over to her nightstand and yanked open the drawer so hard it actually came out of the nightstand and clattered to the floor. Immediately her heart tightened at the sight of its contents. The knife, which she'd wrapped in a cloth after she'd moved in, and the picture frame. With a shaky hand she picked and turned it over to open it. Her hands barely touched the back of the picture before the memories came flooding back. She dropped the picture frame back into the drawer and heard the glass shatter. She kicked the drawer to the other side of the room and slid into the corner of her bed. Her goggles tore at her hair when she yanked them off, chucking them into the corner, hearing the telltale sound of the lense cracking as it connected with the wall.

She cried. For the first time in years, she cried.

When she finally looked up, the sun had set and the moon was already high in the sky. Her eyes caught the pile of clothes that Brainy had leant her at the edge of her bed. In one quick movement, she picked up the pile, tossed everything into the drawer with the picture and knife, and shoved it back into the nightstand.

She crawled back into the corner of her bed and pulled her knees to her chest.

She didn't cry that night.

But she didn't sleep either.

 **No joke, this is the first chapter I actually edited. I'm honestly kind of angry with myself that I've been doing quantity over quality so far with this story, and I hope the difference shows in this chapter. Expect this quality from now on, I'm going to put the same amount of effort into this story as my original stories. I honestly always prefered The Queen of Thieves to Sapphire, so that might get delayed for a bit, but I'm still planning on finishing it, and I'll put the same love and care into that story as I am with this one.**

 **Don't be afraid to tell me what you guys think. This is just as much about me learning and improving my writing as it is me wanting to make a story that people enjoy reading. I love that everyone has been so kind and enthusiastic in the comments, you all really have made this year so amazing for me so far.**

 **Love you guys!**

 **C.J.(Kyla)**


	6. AN- A Quick Update

Hey guys.

First off, I'm sorry this isn't an actual chapter, but I thought you all deserved a little update.

I'm sorry this chapter is taking so long, I literally work on it every chance I get, just building it up sentence by sentence.

I've been dealing with some stomach and mental health issues over here as well as school problems. But I will be taking spring/summer semester off to rethink my major and I'm hoping that will free me up a bit to work on this more.

I have been getting super stressed out about school and when I'm not doing school work I just end up laying in bed staring at the ceiling, but I have not given up on it, I promise, I'm just struggling a bit.

Carl's comment this morning is what made me post this. You didn't upset me, I took your comment to heart and tried to make the story better, I appreciate it. None of you have upset me at all, and I haven't lost any interest in this story, I'm just feeling a little fucked up lately, I hope you all can understand.

Love you guys!

C.J. (Kyla)


	7. 5- What is This? UPDATED

(This chapter has been updated. It now includes some information I forgot to add in on the first pass that will be important to later chapters. I also fixed up some grammar and dialogue. The first few chapters of this story didn't receive a proper editing session, so I'm doing that now. All current chapters will be updated before chapter 6, "Game Day," is posted.)

 **So apparently all I need to do to get myself motivated to work on this again is to re-read my notes planning ahead to book 3, I'm very excited again.**

 **Really quick I want to address a comment by Carl about soul gazing.**

" _ **Hey I got a question. In chapter three Robyn says she wears the goggles so she won't make connections. Is that a reference to soul gazing?**_

 _ **If you don't know, soul gazing is a technique, that if you stare into someone's eyes pong enough you will create real feelings of love. So I just want to know if that is why she wears them cause, before with the blindfold it made sense, cause she couldn't see anything. But she can still see with the goggles, so she can still make those connections she is trying to avoid." -Carl**_

 **I think that was what I was going for in the original? But I can't remember, and even then, the blindfold just didn't make sense to me anymore. The thing with Robyn is she believes she is in control of her own emotions enough to pack up and leave whenever she wants, she just doesn't want people to get close to her. There is also something specifically about her eyes, and I've known this about her since the original, but I didn't know how exactly I wanted to present it, but I have a much better idea now. If you've read the original, you know what part of Robyns past is, but this other part of her won't be revealed until book 2 at least, and she won't actually talk about it probably until book 3.**

 **Lastly, I want to thank you all for being so patient with me waiting for this update. I've been going through a lot lately and your guy's support and kindness in the comments has helped me more than I can say, I really truly appreciate all of you.**

 **Things are getting better and, while i can't upload as regularly as I did when I first posted, I do hope to get into a regular upload schedule again, maybe a chapter or two a month. I was stuck at school for five hours today and I suddenly felt inspired to work on this and it all came together rather quickly after that.**

 **I hope you enjoy the chapter3**

 **C.J.(Kyla)**

 _"You know, I think now might be a good time to call Superman." Lightning said._

 _"What happened to 'I don't need Superman'?" Robyn readied her guns and started to fire at the Scavengers._

 _"Not the time, Robyn," he said._

 _"I always have time to make fun of you!" she smiled at him from behind Brainy's shoulder. A small smile spread across Brainiac's face._

" _Superman!" he said into his ring. "Superman, come in!" a quiet_ click _was all he received in response._

 _"Well?!" Lightning shouted over the noise of the battle._

 _"He- he turned off his communicator…" Brainy turned to him. Lightning's eyes widened._

" _Brainy, move!" Brainiac turned in time to see a group of Scavengers coming up the side of the wall and aiming at him. He didn't even have time to react._

 _In the split second before it hit him, Robyn stepped over and wrapped her arms around him. He felt her lurch forward as the laser hit her back. He heard her scream._

Brainiac 5 opened his eyes quickly, the sound echoing around in his head. He blinked and reminded himself what he had been working on before the memory had climbed back into his mind.

That day was when the malfunctions had started. Immediately after, actually. As they had rushed her to the hospital room, Robyn had somehow completely healed as if with just a thought. Until that point, they all had been lead to believe she had no powers, which clearly was not the case. The situation became even stranger when she had woken up screaming. That was when Brainy became very confused. Every single move he made was always perfectly calculated and thought through, but in that moment he had moved towards her, reached out to her without ever once _thinking_ about doing it. It had caught him so off guard that he almost didn't hear her accidentally reveal that she was running from someone. Brainy thought that the older girl wasn't afraid of anything. Obviously he was wrong. Whatever she was running from terrified her, and he hoped he never had to meet anything that had Robyn Talvra shaking in a corner like a child.

In his 16 years of life, Brainy had only been truly confused a handful of times, and he hated the feeling. He had a twelfth level intelligence, he wasn't supposed to get confused. All his life he'd known the answer to every situation that had been thrown at him, and even when he didn't, it had never taken anywhere near this long to figure out.

Robyn had been a member of the Legion for nearly seven months, and for the past five, Brainy had been experiencing system malfunctions around her. Originally he thought maybe it was her equipment. But then she had knocked on his door a few weeks ago and she had left all of it in her room except her goggles. It didn't even look like she'd turned them on, but the malfunctions were almost the worst they'd ever been!

He had wanted to run some tests after repairs after the battle with Alexis, but Superman's fight with Drax had destroyed about 28.2.% of the tower and they were set back yet another few weeks. Fortunately for Brainy, C.O.M.P.U.T.O had been relatively untouched, and it had only taken him three days to complete his own repairs. It had been two weeks since he'd finished, however, and Robyn had said a grand total of maybe ten words to him, each a different variation of 'I'm busy.'

At this point the malfunctions were growing too distracting to ignore. He had been talking to Saturn earlier that day about the patrol schedule for the week. All Robyn had done was walk through the room, but Saturn had to remind him what they had been talking about after the dark haired girl had left. Brainy realized he couldn't wait until after renovations to run tests. So today, he had decided to start, with or without Robyn's help. Unfortunately, he kind of _couldn't_ start without her help, so he was finding every excuse possible to be in the same place as her during the renovations.

Currently Robyn, Phantom, and Lightning were outside one of the labs on the second level, fixing a hole in wall, while Brainy was in the small lab just a few feet away. He was sat behind a monitor, peeking over the top occasionally, and keeping note of exactly what happened each time he noticed a malfunction. The latest event read ' _temperature fluctuation- Robyn tied jacket around waist then activated gloves energy fields.'_

"What are you doing?" Phantom's voice suddenly said from behind him. He jumped and turned around to face her.

"Running some tests," he said (maybe a bit too quickly) before turning back to the computer and writing ' _loss of awareness- Robyn used gloves to lift and hold a panel in place'._

"Uh… It looks like you've been stalking Robyn all day…" Phantom pointed to the screen and looked at him, almost amused.

"Technically you could say that," he looked over his computer again. "I have been experiencing some system malfunctions, almost exclusively around her, and I'm trying to figure out what is causing them." Phantom looked over at Robyn and Lightning. "She and I were _going_ to run the tests together, but she seems to be going out of her way to avoid me."

"And how does that make you feel?" Phantom said in a strange way, sitting on the desk next to him and crossing her legs.

"... I don't see how that's relevant," Brainy squinted at her. Phantom sighed and ran a hand through her long dark hair.

"Ok," she glanced over at Robyn. "I'm getting the feeling that you're making this _way_ more complicated than it needs to be, but because I'd rather do _anything_ than clean right now I'm going to help you out."

"That is not necessary, Phantom," he turned back to the monitor front of him. "I am perfectly capable of-"

"You're stuck with me, Brainy," she crossed her arms and grinned down at him from her place on the desk. They had a sort of staring contest for a minute before Brainy sighed in defeat.

"Fine," he glanced over at Robyn again as Phantom hopped off the desk.

"Awaiting orders, Captain," Phantom gave him a small salute and a big grin. Brainy spun slightly in his chair to face her.

"I need Robyn in the same room as me at least," he started. "The more intense the malfunctions are the easier I'll be able to recognize them, I hope. And you can keep an eye on me and see if you catch anything I do not." Phantom nodded and seemed to be trying to hold back a giggle. "Is something funny?" Brainy glared at her.

"Hilarious, but not important, I'm on it boss," she rose off the ground and flew out into the hall with Robyn and Lightning. Phantom pulled Lightning off to the side and whispered something to him. The redhead's eyes widened and he looked over at Robyn. He looked over at Brainy with a confused look and pointed at Robyn while she raised another panel to the wall. Brainy looked between Lightning and Robyn and shrugged in response. Phantom whispered something else to Lightning and a look of realization hit him.

"Hey, Sparky!" Robyn called. "Could use some help over here!" Lightning gave Brainy a quick thumbs up and flew over to Robyn to weld the panel onto the wall.

"Brainy," Phantom waived him over. Brainy flew over the desk and into the hallway next to Phantom. She put a hand on his shoulder and turned him around to face away from the others. "I am going to run some experiments," she whispered. "Go wait in the lounge?"

"Why?" Brainy looked at her skeptically. "Don't I need to be present to record the-"

"Just do it." She pushed him in the direction of the lounge. Brainy stumbled a few feet before glaring back at Phantom. All she gave him was a thumbs up in response as he turned around to walk to the lounge.

Brainy stood in the center of the room for about twenty minutes. Yes, he counted. No, he doesn't usually count how many minutes he stands alone in the middle of a room doing nothing like an idiot. He was just about to give up on waiting and go back to running his tests on his own when the door to the lounge slid open with a quite hiss.

"Phantom said you needed my help?" Robyn leaned against the doorframe. She had pulled her hair back. He thought it looked nice. Had her ears always been slightly pointed? She crossed her arms. Wow, that jacket she wore really hid her arms. Brainy knew she was strong but he'd never noticed that it showed before. "Hello?" she waved her hand in front of him. "Earth to Brainy?"

"What?" he blinked. "Right, yes, Robyn, how can I help you?" she arched an eyebrow at him.

"Phantom told me you needed my help… Remember?"

"Yes, uh, I need you to…." Brainy quickly scanned the room for something, anything he could say to get her to stay. Was this Phantom's plan? Why didn't she warn him? He didn't need Robyn to do anything, he was just wasting her time now.

"Did you forget?"

"Yes. Wait what? No, I don't forget thi-"

"Look, I get it," she stopped him and sighed. "I'm just a little out of it lately. As soon as we're done with repairs I'll help you figure out what's up with these malfunctions, I promise. Just-" she reached up as if to ruffle his hair but stopped and settled for patting his shoulder. "Just hold on 'till then." She turned to leave. "Call me if you remember why you needed my help, okay?" He opened his mouth to say something but she had already turned the corner. Probably for the best, he had no idea what he wanted to say anyway.

"That was the single most painful thing I have ever had the pleasure of watching." Brainy spun around at the sound of Lightning's voice from around the corner. Lightning and Phantom had their heads poked around the corner of the door. Both of their eyes were wide.

"What?" Brainy shrugged.

"Dude you were stiff as a board that whole time." Lightning walked over to Brainy and flung his arm around the smaller boys shoulders. "Did you really not notice?"

"Was I?"

"Ok," Phantom sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "We're gonna need more help than I thought."

It took Phantom less than thirty minutes to find Saturn and Triplicate and convince them that helping Brainy with his tests was more important than actually finishing repairs. The four of them (Lightning had gone back to helping Robyn) were currently sat in the lounge 'planning their attack' as Phantom called it.

"I still do not understand why it is necessary for all of you to be here." Brainy crossed his arms. He was sat alone on the couch with all three girls stood in front of him, also with their arms crossed.

"Because apparently you have no idea what you're doing." Triplicate split into her three parts, her orange and purple self sitting on either side of him.

"Brainy." Saturn crouched in front of him, Pink eyes filled with concern. "We just want to help you. If you keep getting distracted like this you could get hurt on a mission… If it's really what we think it is we have no reason to be worried, but to know for sure I… I need to know what's going through your head when these malfunctions happen. And it sounds like you really don't know it for yourself."

"You want to read my mind."

"Only if you'll let me." Everyone was silent for a moment.

"I don't like not knowing what's going on, and I am no closer to figuring it out than I was when it started." He sighed. "Do what you have to do." Saturn nodded and raised her hands to rest near either side of Brainy's face.

"You might feel a bit of pressure."

He suddenly felt very dizzy.

" _Phantom said you needed my help?" Robyn leaned against the doorframe. She had pulled her hair back, though a few strands had fallen out and around her face. He thought it looked nice. Had her ears always been slightly pointed? She crossed her arms. Wow, that jacket she wore really hid her arms. Brainy knew she was strong but he'd never noticed that it showed before. "Hello?" she waved her hand in front of him. "Earth to Brainy?" When had she gotten closer?_

" _What?" he blinked, looking up to see her goggles. Would she ever let him see her eyes? "Right, yes, Robyn, how can I help you?" she arched an eyebrow at him and crossed her arms again._

" _Phantom told me you needed my help… Remember?"_

" _Yes, uh, I need you to…." Brainy quickly scanned the room for something, anything he could say to get her to stay. Was this Phantom's plan? Why didn't she warn him? He didn't need Robyn to do anything, he was just wasting her time now._

" _Did you forget?"_

" _Yes. Wait what? No, I don't forget thi-"_

" _Look, I get it," she stopped him and sighed, tucking her hair behind her ear. Was she going to leave? This was the first conversation they'd had in weeks."I'm just a little out of it lately. As soon as we're done with repairs I'll help you figure out what's up with these malfunctions, I promise. Just-" she reached up as if to ruffle his hair. He tensed and glanced up at her hand. She stopped and settled for quickly patting his shoulder. "Just hold on 'till then." She turned to leave and Brainy felt a weird sensation in his chest. "Call me if you remember why you needed my help, okay?" He opened his mouth to say something but she had already turned the corner. Probably for the best, there was so much he wanted to say but he didn't even know what it was._

* * *

 _Robyn, Phantom, and Lightning were outside one of the labs on the second level, fixing the hole in wall, while Brainy was stood in the small lab just a few feet away. He was sat behind a monitor, peeking over the top occasionally, and keeping note of exactly what happened each time he felt a malfunction. The latest event read_ 'temperature fluctuation- Robyn tied jacket around waist then activated gloves energy fields.'

" _What are you doing?" Phantom's voice suddenly said from behind him. He jumped and turned around to face her._

" _Running some tests," he said, maybe a bit too quickly, before turning back to the computer and writing_ 'loss of awareness- Robyn used gloves to lift and hold a panel in place.'

" _Uh… It looks like you've been stalking Robyn all day…" Phantom pointed to the screen and looked at him skeptically. He sighed. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Robyn and Lightning sitting down, probably taking a break. He couldn't hear what Lightning said but whatever it was caused Robyn to begin laughing rather loudly. Brainy felt a small smile tug at his lips._

" _Technically you could say that," he looked over his computer again. "I have been experiencing some system malfunctions around her, and I'm trying to figure out what is causing them." Phantom looked over at Robyn and Lightning. "She and I were_ going _to run the tests together, but she seems to be going out of her way to avoid me."_

" _And how does that make you feel?" Phantom said in a strange way, sitting on the desk next to him and crossing her legs._

" _... I don't see how that's relevant," Brainy squinted at her._

* * *

 _Brainy sat in the lounge with a screen in front of him. He was trying to organize a repair schedule that would still allow him and Robyn some time to run their tests. It had been a few days since the attack with Drax and enough rubble had finally been removed for them to be able to begin repairs. Several weapons had been disconnected from the internal defenses, the lights in half the building were out, and he'd honestly lost track of how many holes in the walls and floors needed to be fixed._

" _No worries," the sound of a familiar voice from down tha hall caused Brainy to jump. "I just have to stop by my room first." He stood when he heard footsteps heading towards the lounge, and walked, a bit faster than usual, towards the voice. He stopped when he nearly ran into the source._

" _Robyn!" He smiled up at her. "Do you have a minute?"_

" _Uh… Actually I'm... a little busy right now." He felt… Smaller somehow at those words._

" _Oh, alright. I was just wondering if you would be able to run some tests with me later today."_

" _I can't today." She pushed passed him and started to walk through the lounge._

" _Tomorrow then?" No response. "C.O.M.P.U.T.O was left in decent condition, so whenever you're-"_

" _Look I'll come get you when I have the time."_

" _Oh. Okay, but you should probably kno-"_

" _I said I'm busy, okay? Just give me a few days." She left the room without waiting for a response._

" _...Okay."_

* * *

 _Brainy was crouched on the floor with his arm extended a few feet inside the wall of Robyns room. After a few seconds he heard a satisfying click and brought his arm back to its normal position._

" _Brainy? Robyn's voice got his attention. He jumped a bit but managed not to bump his head on the top of the vent."What are you doing?"_

" _I'm fixing your heating unit." He stood up and looked at her. He noticed his shirt at the top of the basket of laundry she was carrying and smiled at the memory of her wearing it in the kitchen. It had looked nice on her. "I just finished actually."_

" _Wow, that was fast. Thank you." She smiled down at him. "Oh yeah, here are the clothes I borrowed from you." He took them and looked at them for a moment._

" _You can keep them." He set them back on the basket. "I really only wear the blue shirt." They both jumped at the sound of the heater humming to life. Robyn immediately relaxed when the warm air flooded through the room. She set the basket of laundry on her bed and stood in front of the heater for a moment with her arms out and a content smile on her face.._

" _Gah, you're awesome." She practically jumped over to Brainy and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. It was like everything in him had broken. He felt warm all over and he briefly forgot where he was. His reaction must have shown physically somehow because she jumped back twice as fast as she had jumped towards him. "Sorry, forgot." She took a step back and, after a moment to recollect his thoughts, he relaxed. "Seriously though, thank you."_

" _It's no problem," he turned towards the door, anxious to get back to the familiarity of his own room. "Let me know if it breaks again, apparently Lightning was having trouble with his too." She nodded._

" _Will do," she walked up to close the door behind him. "Night!"_

" _Good night, Robyn." He smiled at her before he walked into his own room._

 _Once his own door was closed he looked at his empty room and suddenly felt very cold. He knew his heater wasn't broken though._

* * *

" _Aaand?" He heard Phantom say in a teasing voice._

"Aaand _I needed clean clothes to sleep in?" Robyn sounded confused.. "Is that against the rules or something?" she asked sarcastically. Brainy was on his way to the kitchen, knowing the others would be there this early in the morning._

" _Not at all." Timber Wolf chuckled as Brainy walked into the room._

" _... Am I missing something here…?" Brainy barely noticed the room go silent. Robyns hair was messy and stuck out around the strap of her goggles. The clothes he'd loaned her were small on her and he couldn't help but wonder if her hips had always looked like that. She turned to him and he panicked. He need to say something, was it weird to look at her hips? He'd never seen hips before he didn't know what the criteria for visible hips was._

" _Good… Good morning, Robyn." he looked at the ground and quickly walked past her to the table, sitting down and staying as still as possible. She looked at the others skeptically._

" _I dunno if I'd say 'good'," she started to side step out of the kitchen, never taking her eyes off the others. "'Weird' would be more accurate."_

 _For some reason the room stayed silent after she left. He looked up and noticed that everyone's strange looks were now directed at him._

" _What?"_

" _What was that about?" Phantom narrowed her eyes at him._

" _I have no idea what you're talking about." He tilted his head._

" _Uh huh," Lightning rolled his eyes._

* * *

 _Brainy opened his door to see Robyn standing in his doorway._

 _"Oh my god that is precious," He was suddenly aware that he was still wearing his Superman shirt. His face scrunched up and he crossed his arms, trying to hide the logo._

 _"Did you need something?" he asked.  
_ _"Oh yeah," she shook her head. "I was going to ask if you had any actual clothes, which apparently you do, and I was going to ask if I could borrow some. All my clothes are in the laundry room."  
_ _"Oh," his arms dropped. "Yes, I have a few." he stepped to the side, making enough room for her to walk through the door. "You can wait in here if you want." she nodded and stepped inside.  
_ _"Thanks." Brainy turned to his small closet looked through a few of his clothes. He only had a handful, and all were sleep clothes. He hadn't worn most of them in years, and he was already smaller, so he wasn't sure exactly what would fit her. Finally he settled on an old grey shirt (also with the Superman logo) and some dark brown pants._

 _"Hey, while I'm thinking about it, do the rooms have separate heating systems?" Brainy looked at her from his small closet.  
_ _"Why? Is there something wrong with the heating system in your room?_

 _"Yeah, for a few weeks." she shivered a little bit in response to what must have been the temperature difference between their rooms. "Your room is way warmer."_

 _"They're connected in pairs, which means Lightning's is probably out too. I'll take a look at that as soon as I can." he walked over to her and handed the small pile over. "These should fit you." He remembered the thin blanket Robyn had brought from her previous… Home. "Oh, and here." he extended his arm to grab one of the blankets off his bed. "You can borrow this until I get to it, I've got another."  
_ _"Thanks, Brainy. I'll bring these back as soon as my laundry gets rotated." She smiled down at him. "Which, unfortunately, is kind of no one's top priority right now."  
As long as she was warm._

 _"Don't worry about it." he smiled back. "I really only wear this one," he gestured to his shirt. "The rest are just for fun." the two shared a small chuckle as she walked through the door. "Good night, Robyn."  
_ _"Night, Brainy." she shut the door and walked back to her room._

* * *

 _"What was that about?" Robyn asked suddenly. Brainy jumped and tried to spin around at the same time. So fast he actually fell out of his floating chair and tumbled to the floor. She chuckled down at him and, despite the pain now spreading through his back, he smiled up at her._

 _"Sorry," She chuckled and flew behind him to lift him to his feet. She put her hands under his arms and this feeling he could only describe as electricity shot through his body. He quickly stumbled away from her, realizing he was breathing heavily for whatever reason. "What? Do I smell or something?"_

 _"That's not…" he sighed, recalibrating his sensory receptors. "You just startled me, that's all."_

 _"Looks like I did a bit more than startle you," she chuckled again, letting her smile widen a bit. He quickly looked away from her, just so he'd look anywhere else. What was wrong with him lately!? Everything just… stopped working around her. "Come on, we haven't talked in like a week and a half, talk to me."_

 _"I've been busy," he said bluntly and began to walk away without looking at her. She put her hand on his shoulder and spun him around, ending that electrical feeling through him again._

 _"Did I do something wrong?" she asked, more than a little angry. He looked at her goggles lens, searching for an answer behind the tinted glass."If I did something, just tell me." he felt suddenly very… alone? Had he made her feel bad? He didn't mean to… his malfunctions shouldn't affect her mood. He would just have to work through them until he figured out what was going on so she didn't get upset with him._

 _"You haven't done anything wrong, Robyn," he said stiffly. "I have been having some sensory malfunctions, primarily around you, and it's a little distracting when I'm trying to work on repairs." that must have taken her by surprise. She removed her hands._

 _"What kind of sensory malfunctions?" she tilted her head._

 _"Well for lack of better terminology, I lock up," he started, trying his best to explain what had been going on. "And it's like my receptors just stopped working when you touch me." she looked down at her gloves and thought for a moment._

 _"Honestly, most of my gear is made from tech I stole from you and modified," she explained. Even though he suspected that was the case, hearing her admit it so bluntly made him feel the need to upgrade the buildings defenses. "Do you think maybe it's causing some sort of interference?" it certainly wasn't impossible._

 _"Perhaps," he raised his arm and pulled up a holo-screen. "At the moment though, I have too many other things to take care of first." Robyn nodded._

 _"Right," she flew around him. "I'll get out of your way." she looked down the hall and smiled at someone he couldn't see. "Hey, Super- Whoa, what's with you?"_

* * *

" _Good help is so hard to find." Alexis turned the corner suddenly and fired a net from one of the canons on her arm, trapping the three together and sending them crashing to the ground. Brainy's eyes went wide. His head was barely passed Robyns chest and her arms had been awkwardly flung around his neck shoulders. "You know, it never would have occured to me that I'd be so good at this kind of thing." Alexis giggled as she stomped over to them. Three Scavengers joined them, aiming their weapons at the three stuck on the ground. "This is really fun!"_

 _Robyn shifted, probably trying to escape, and Brainy's head moved up to rest between her neck and her shoulder. Something was definitely wrong. It felt like everything in him was going crazy. He had no idea what the actual temperature of the room was, he felt like he was spinning, and everything smelled different… Nicer. He closed his eyes and tried to focus on breathing, hoping whatever was causing this would stop soon._

" _Alexis!" he heard Superman yell._

" _Hey." she replied in a semi-flirtatious tone._

" _What are you doing?!"_

" _What's it look like?" she gestured to the Legionnaire's on the floor. "I'm making new friends." one of the Scavengers decided then was a good time to fire at Superman. Obviously angry, Superman flew in a circle around Alexis, knocking out all of the Scavengers in the hall. "So," Alexis's voice had grown bitter. "You still choose your teammates over me?"_

" _What do you think?" he glared at her. Her face hardened and the Mech-Suit stood taller. She sighed._

" _Woodhouse!" the large black and white robot burst through the floor, though this time it was even bigger and armed with several large laser cannons. It punched Superman and sent him flying down the hall. Superman steadied himself and, in a matter of seconds, used his laser vision to cut Woodhouse up into several pieces. His metal head clattered to the floor._

" _Didn't think this through, did we?" he said as he powered down. Superman flew over to the three tied by the cable and cut it loose. Brainy quickly stood, trying to distance himself from the others. He started to feel better after a moment and decided to take a look around, looking for anything that may have set him off. Robyn stretched and her elbows cracked, drawing his attention. As soon as he looked at her a sharp, heavy feeling hit him in the chest. Was it something to do with her?_

* * *

 _"Hopefully they're closer towards the center of the city. With any luck we'll find them soon." he slowed slightly and glanced at the sunset. "Anyway, it's getting late. We should head back." they flew back towards headquarters, but instead of flying through the door, Robyn flew up towards the roof._

 _"Where are you going?" he asked, pausing by the door._

 _"I'm going to watch the sunset," she looked at him over her shoulder. "It's been a while since I've seen one." she started to fly before pausing and looking down at him. "You're welcome to join me if you want." she flew the rest of the way up to the roof. He watched after her, trying to remember if he had anything else to do tonight. He didn't think so, but he still hesitated to join her. He hadn't been… acting right since the incident with the scavengers earlier, and he wasn't sure what he would say._

 _Before he even had time to process that thought he was already flying up to the roof. He sat down next to her without a word. She must have noticed though, because she tilted her head in his direction. They sat for a few moments, and for some reason he was very acutely aware of every move she made. She reached up to tap her goggles, probably without even realizing she was doing it._

 _"Why do you always wear those goggles?" He asked without thinking. That was when he noticed he had been staring and quickly turned his attention back to the sunset. She thought about his question._

 _"You will never have a more intimate moment with a person, or ever feel any closer to them, than when you are looking into their eyes." she said as she pulled her knees to her chest.. "You can really read a person that way, as much as they may try to hide it. There are somethings I'm just not ready to show." Brainy closed his eyes and turned even further from her to reinforce what he was about to say._

 _"I won't look." he heard her turn. "If you want to take them off… to watch the sunset… I won't look."_

 _It took her a moment to respond, but after a while he heard a click and some shuffling that must have been her removing her goggles. He had to fight every twitch and movement of his body to keep himself facing the other direction. He didn't want to see her eyes. Well he did, but she didn't want him to. He just wanted to see her, to know what she was doing._

 _"As much as I hate to admit it," she started. He opened his eyes but continued to face the other direction. "You aren't nearly as bad as I originally pinned you out to be." The sun had sunk low enough in the sky that all the reds and golds had faded from sight. She stood and slid her goggles back over her eyes. "We should go back inside." she flew in front of him, extending her hand to help him up. He looked up to her and took her hand. The warmth from her hand sent a strange shock up his arm._

* * *

 _"The offer stands for you too, Robyn." She said. "You really helped us today. It's yours if you want it. You wouldn't-o-"_

 _"'I wouldn't' what?" Robyn stood, and everyone took a step back. "Wouldn't have to be a thief? I wouldn't have to steal my heating? I wouldn't have to live in a crashed ship and sleep on something that used to be a mattress?" the room grew silent. "For the record, I didn't_ want _to do it. I had to. I doubt any of you remember, but_ you're _the reason I_ have _to do all of that in the first place."."_

 _"What do you-" Saturn started._

 _"Robyn Talvra." a memory finally clicked into place in Brainy's head. Robyn turned to him. "I thought your name seemed familiar. You auditioned for the Legion about five years ago." realization flashed across the faces of all the Legionnaires._

 _"At least one of you remembers." she sighed and slouched back onto the couch. "In your defense, I was thirteen, and I did completely botch my audition, but it didn't make_ my _life any easier."_

 _"What happened to you?" Triplicate asked. "That lead to-"_

 _"The Queen of Thieves?"_

* * *

 _A quiet groan came from the thief as she laid on the cot._

 _"It's ok, we aren't going to hurt you." Saturn said, trying to calm the other girl. She sat straight up and held her arm over her eyes._

 _"Goggles."_

 _"We-What?" Saturn took a step back, confused by the seemingly random request._

 _"Goggles. Now."_

 _"I need to scan your eyes for a concussion." Brainy spoke up. "You could have-"_

 _"Well_ Brainiac 5 _, you should have fucking thought about that before you had your friend zap me, huh?" Brainy flinched at the way she spat out his name. "Goggles." she repeated. "They can perform a self-scan to check for concussions as long as they work, but I refuse to cooperate until I have them back so give! Me! My! Goggles! Now!" Everyone in the room looked between each other, unsure of how to respond to her outburst. Bounce picked her goggles up off the counter and slowly placed them in her outstretched hand. She quickly pulled them over her eyes and let out a shaky sigh as the goggles flicked to life._

 _"Perform self-scan." she said calmly. "Give auditory report." the goggles hummed for a moment._

 _"No immediate concern." the goggles spoke in a gravely, barely understandable voice. Brainy flinched, immediately able to tell they were home made from start to finish_

 _"This is the_ Queen of Thieves _?" Lightning said, almost taunting her._

 _"Disappointed, Spark Plug?" she practically growled._

 _"We just wanted to talk to you, Qu-... do you have anything else we can call you?" Saturn asked. "Queen of Thieves seems a little formal."_

* * *

 _She had been so much younger then. They both had been. Five years younger, in fact. But he had a feeling she had grown up a long time ago. She had on a sweater, and jeans that were far too big for her. Her goggles were cracked and clumsily welded together (as shown by the band aids on her fingers). She'd gotten into a fight with someone, the kid had deserved it though. He'd broken up the fight. She intrigued him.  
_

" _Robyn Talvra?" Lightning had called her name and the young Robyn walked into the large domed room. There was something special about her, even if she hadn't made it into the Legion. He filed her name into his primary memory drive. Six months passed, and he filed her name into his secondary memory drive. He vaguely remembered seeing her again two years later. Maybe the Scavengers had been involved, but at the time he hadn't recognized her.  
_

* * *

It took him a moment to realize the memories had stopped. When he opened his eyes all three girls (five counting the triplets) and Lightning were all grinning at him.

"Was I right, or was I right?" Phantom nudged Saturn. Saturn stood and chuckled.

"You were right," she crossed her arms.

"I never really thought that you wouldn't know what all of that meant, I just assumed," Lightning piped up.

"But when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense that he didn't know," the triplets said at the same time.

"Didn't know what?" Brainy asked. Everyone just smiled at him. "What?"

"You just have a crush on Robyn, Brainy. It's nothing to be worried about." Saturn smiled at him and rest a hand on his shoulder.

"A… Crush?" He tilted his head. "I don't understand… I don't want to crush anyone, especially not Robyn." Lightning started cackling.

"That's… exactly what I'd expect a robot to thik a crush is." He plopped down on the couch next to Brainy, resting his arm around his shoulder. "Having a crush on Robyn means you _looooove_ her."

"Lightning, stop teasing him." Saturn scowled at him. "Having a crush and being in love are two very different things."

"You want to _huuug_ her and _kiiss_ her."

Brainy felt a chill go down his back at the thought. Saturn smacked Lightning in the head.

"Ow!"

"Knock it off."

"I don't-" Brainy started.

"Hello?" Robyns voice echoed angrily from down the hallway. "When I find you, you're all dead, you hear me?"

Everyone ran from the lounge just as Robyn turned the corner.

"What is this?! I'm here busting my ass to fix _your_ house and _you're_ all sitting in here for _story time_? Hey! Don't run from me! You guys are dead!" Brainy tried to jump over the couch but Robyn grabbed his arm before he could escape. By holding her arm straight up she was able to hold Brainy up a good foot and a half off the ground.

"No, not you too, _one_ of you is helping me clean." She started to storm out of the room, dragging Brainy behind her. "When Superman gets back from his patrol you all are so dead!" Brainy extended his arm so he could walk normally behind her. He looked up at her as they walked, ignoring the strange feeling in his arm.

 _A crush?_ Brainy had never heard about a crush. But he had heard about love before. He looked up at Robyn. That couldn't be what this was. Though, he did think the word _crush_ perfectly described the feeling in his chest. He would have to do some more research. And for some reason, he really didn't want Robyn to know.

 **Thank you all again for waiting so patiently for this chapter, and thank you for being so supportive in the comments, reading them always cheers me up. This chapter is long overdue and I'm sorry it took me so long, I hope it lives up to what you were waiting for.**

 **As always if you have any comments or critiques please leave a comment or feel free to PM me, I love talking to you guys. I hope you enjoyed this special Brainy POV chapter (the next one will be too) and I will try getting the next chapter up as soon as I can.**

 **Thank you for sticking with me.**

 **Love you guys.**

 **~C.J. (Kyla)**


	8. AN- Updated Chapters?

Hey guys! I have been struggling writing this next chapter, but I just wanted to post something separate from a chapter announcing that I have spent a long ass time going back and giving all the chapters up until this point a serious editing session. So far chapter 4 "Phantoms" has been the only one to be properly edited, and I felt the other chapters could use a tune up. Mainly I just fixed up grammar, fixed some dialogue, and changed a few words for foreshadowing, but there are a few bigger things that were changed.

One being that Robyn is now two years older than Brainy instead of one.

I tried to add a few small scenes that I thought would allow Robyn to bond with characters other than Brainy, as well as a few that I thought would help the relationship between Robyn and Brainy.

Chapter one was left relatively untouched, I just fixed up dialogue mostly.

Here is a quick list of everything that has been seriously altered, so you don't have to go re-read all of it if you don't want to:

-I have added scenes to chapter two.

-The scene where Robyn saves Brainy in chapter 3 has been edited a tiny bit.

-The scene when she regains consciousness has been HEAVILY edited.

-There is a scene that has been added right after she wakes up.

-The sunset scene in chapter three has been edited.

-I can't tell you exactly what i did with chapter four in case you read this first, but pay attention to the fight with comet and cupid before Drax attacks Brainy.

-I have added two more flashback scenes to "What is this?" As well as touched up the ending a bit.

And that's it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the updated chapters and please let me know what you think. I will try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible, as I am out of school now, but I am now writing TWO original stories, planning a web comic, and attempting to set up a Youtube Channel as well as a Deviantart account (I will be posting more pictures in the future, including pictures of Robyn, Robyn and Brainy, random doodles, ect. But currently all that is up is three pictures from 2016 so don't judge me too harshly. If any of you are interested my Deviantart account is IntrovertAtWork)

Love you guys!

~C.J. (Kyla)


	9. AN- My Absence - Again

Hello everyone, C.J. (Nathan) here.

I just wanted to apologize once again for my absence. I feel awful when I leave for long periods of time without any proper explanation or apology. As most of you have probably noticed by now I'm not exactly in the best of mental states, so I'll stop being a broken record.

I've been working pretty exclusively on an original novel these last few months. That world, the characters, the story, they have always been able to help me out of a particularly rough spot.

During this time, however, I have still been working actively on the next Q.O.T chapter. For whatever reason though I am struggling with it so much. I am just so uninterested and unmotivated to write it.

I've tried cutting scenes, adding them, rewriting the whole thing, switching the character POV, and even scrapping the chapter completely and just moving on, but this chapter is the reason I updated all of the others, what happens in it is important. I'm still working on it, but thie particular chapter is giving me an unusual amount of grief.

As a way of saying sorry, and thanking you all for your patience, I'm planning on uploading up to two additional chapters at the same time in a bulk upload to make up for the lack of content.

I promise I have absolutely no intention of leaving this story. I actually am planning on writing an original story at some point with a main character based off of Robyn, so this is really helping me work out that character.

I will never be able to thank you all enough for the incredible comments and support I've gotten from this story, It really keeps me going. It means so much to me that you all have stuck with it and I'm so sorry the amount of content is so sparse and my upload schedule is so spastic, I truly appreciate it.

I cannot promise when the next chapters will be up, but I am still actvley working on them. I hope once I get passed this chapter I'll be able to get back into it a little bit.

Thank you all for being so patient, it means the world to me.

I'll try and have the next chapters up as soon as possible.

Love you guys,

~C.J. (Nathan)


	10. 6- Fear Factory

**Hello Everyone! I am so so so sorry for the long wait. If you'll let me, I would like to explain myself quickly.**

 **Long story short, I think trying to write "Game Day" took like 20 years off my life. I hated it. No matter what I did, what I changed, added, deleted, re-wrote, I hated it. And I have consistently hated it for about two months now.**

 **So I finally just decided to scrap it and move on. I know I said in the last Authors Note that the idea I had for "Game Day" was the reason that sparked the rewrites of all the previous chapters, but I just didn't care anymore. And I would much rather move on to chapters that I'm excited for and that will actually add to the story, rather than forcing mediocre content simply for the sake of having content. It wasn't working, I was trying to force it, and it showed.**

 **If I had this mentality two months ago when I really started struggling with this chapter we would be another three chapters in at this point, and for that I am so sorry.**

 **As promised in the last authors note, however, there will be a bulk update. As you've no doubt noticed, this is one of three chapters I have uploaded today to make up for the lack of content.**

 **And now a quick update on my life. I am going back to college in september, though only part time. However, I will be getting a job on top of that, so I won't have as much time to devote to this story. (But I barely sleep anyway and I'm going back to school for art which is something I do anyway, So I don't actually think it will effect this story too much in the long run).**

 **Again, I am so incredibly sorry for the wait, and I promise I will try to get back into some sort of schedule once I start to get back into a pattern for school.**

 **But enough from me, you all have waited far more than long enough. Thank you so much for sticking with me through this, I promise, I'll try to keep these breaks to a minimum from now on. Please enjoy the chapter, and please let me know what you think in the reviews. I read all of them and you guys really make my day c:**

 **~C.J. (Nathan)**

* * *

Robyn sat at the edge of her bed, legs crossed, and goggles laid loosely over her lap. She squinted down at them as she lowered the new lens into place. Her fingers twitched and a small compartment opened in the wrist of her glove. She pulled out a small screwdriver as she set a metal ring on top of the lens. It took her a minute, but eventually the lens was screwed in place. As she waited for the goggles to reboot, she opened the compartment at her wrist and placed the screwdriver back inside. A quiet _ding_ let her know that the goggles were back online. She smiled at the familiar tug at her hair as they slid back over her eyes.

Suddenly a high pitched scream echoed through the halls all the way to her room. Her equipment hummed, green energy blades reaching passed closed fists as she sprinted down the halls of the ship. She made it to the lounge and stood at the doorway, looking for danger. Everyone inside looked up at her from the couch, all wearing the same confused expression. Robyn calmed herself and looked at the screen.

"Bounce, I swear-" she lowered her arms once she remembered what they were watching and deactivated the energy blades. She noticed Brainy rise stiffly from the couch.

"Ah, Brainy, don't leave!" Bounce whined. "You'll miss all the gooey parts!" Robyn chanced a look at the screen and felt her stomach lurch. She leaned against the doorframe, her arms crossed and her back to the movie, glaring at Bounce behind her goggles. Not that he could see.

"I've seen quite enough _goo_ for one evening, thank you." Brainy looked back at the screen and made a face. "Honestly, Bounce, I just don't see the logic in watching ancient classics if they scare you so badly." Robyn chuckled.

"Uh, it's called _fun_ , Brainy," she walked over to him and poked his shoulder. He stiffened and stared at her gloved hand longer than was probably necessary before snapping his head back towards the screen at a speed that would have hurt any human.

"Why didn't you join us then, _Queeny_?" Lightning jabbed, stealing a fistful of popcorn from Bounce's bowl.

"I had repairs to make," she explained. "I know how to have fun, but I also know how to prioritize." whatever snarky comment Lightning had was caught in his throat as a large _BOOM_ from outside shook the entire ship.

"What was that?" Superman stood from the couch.

"C.O.M.P.U.T.O. view screen on." the screen displaying the movie responded to Brainy's words, and a view of outside took its place. There was a large swirl of dark red clouds and at least three bursts of lightning were splitting across the screen at any moment.

"Now _that's_ a monster." Lightning took a step towards the screen.

"A cosmic storm," Brainy explained. "Let's get to the bridge!"

"Is no one else concerned that we didn't notice this sooner?" Robyn shouted at the others as she jogged after them. "No? Just me then? Cool." they made it to the bridge and, after looking out the front window for a grand total of less than one second, Robyn could tell that the ship was being slowly pulled towards the center of the storm. Wwhich she decided was definitely not a good thing. The bridge was shaking as they all took their seats next to their respective consouls and strapped themselves in.

"It's massive!" Brainy shouted over the alarms. "A category thirteen!"

"Can't we just warp through it?" Lightning offered as he pulled up several displays on his own screen.

"Sure," Brainy said sarcastically. "If you want to end up a scattering of molecules!"

"Right," Lightning sighed. "Scratch that warp idea, let's just hang a uey."

"I can't!" Bounce shouted from the wheel. "It's too strong!"

"Wait!" Saturn pointed to the main monitor. "There's something there! Inside the eye!"

"Increasing magnification!" Brainy squinted at the screen as it zoomed in on what Saturn had pointed to. "It's a space station." Brainy mumbled. "I've only seen designs like this in history files." Saturn suddenly let out a distressed noise and held a hand to her head.

"You alright?" Lightning looked over his shoulder at her.

"I'm not… I'm not sure," Saturn responded after recovering. "I heard voices aboard that thing. Lot's of them."

"Scanners indicate no lifeforms on board the station." Brainy explained.

"I know what I heard, Brainy." She defended.

"So what? Are you saying it's a ghost ship?" Lightning asked, clearly skeptical.

"How ironic," Robyn joked to hide the chill that ran up her spine.

"I guess we'll find out once we're on board." Superman responded.

"Um, hello," Bounce's voice cracked. "That's exactly what they did in 'Mutants Among Us' part eight! And we all know how that turned out."

"Remind us." Superman rolled his eyes.

"Put it this way," Bounce stiffened as he watched the station grow closer. "They never made a part nine."

"Thankfully," Robyn mumbled to herself. She looked at the ship on the monitor and held her arms around herself. It was unsettlingly familiar.

Large bolts of lightning flew around the ship and the station as a docking bridge slowly connected the two. Everyone walked cautiously across the bridge, and Robyn would be lying if she said it was just the electricity in the air giving her goosebumps. They made it to the entrance and a thin laser grid appeared at the end of the hall, passing over them as they walked through.

"There's no cause for alarm," Brainy said. "It's an automated scanner, common to this era."

"There's the entrance, dead ahead." Superman said with a small grin, pointing in front of them.

"Bad choice of words," Bounce said under his breath. At this point Robyn was pretty sure Superman just said that to scare Bounce. Where else did he expect the entrance to be, in the middle of the storm? Robyn sighed at her frie- teammates horrible sense of humor. She shook her head and continued walking, shivering as the grid passed over her.

Superman raised his hand to knock and the door slid open before he could. Robyn instinctively held her arms tighter around herself as she looked inside. It was almost identical. A sharp, almost painful, chill shot down her spine as they walked inside.

It was unnaturally dark, even through the night vision view on her goggles. It felt like this hall had once been very bright and colorful, though now all the color had faded to dull muddy memories of what they used to be. A voice in her ear caused her to jump.

" _Heartbeat irregularity."_ the staticy voice of her goggles said, low enough so only she could hear. Except maybe Brainy had heard too, as he looked at her out of the corner of his eye. She held herself tighter. Robyn kept her eyes trained straight in front of her, staring at the back of Supermans head. The door suddenly closed behind them with a loud _bang_.

"Welcome to our humble abode," a low, croaked voice suddenly announced. A small, hunched over creature, that reminded Robyn of a butler from one of Bounce's old movies, slid into the room on a mass of tentacles. It carried a small light with one of its appendages and grinned up at them, all six of its eyes trained on individual members of the group. Robyn tapped a button on her gloves, signaling her goggles to run a scan on the creature in front of her. "The master's been expecting you." it grinned, showing several thick, pointed teeth.

"Okay," Bounce gulped. "Why am I not surprised?"

" _Scan inconclusive,"_ her goggles whispered to her. " _Species unknown."_ Another crack of thunder sounded through the hall. Robyn jumped and snapped her head to look out the window. Except… There wasn't a window… Odd… There had been one in this hall for as long as she remembered.

" _Heartbeat irregularity,"_ her goggles repeated. " _Immediate rest recommended."_ Robyn forced herself to take a shaky breath and remember where she was.

She had never been here. She hadn't even know this place existed until twenty minutes ago. It just looked similar. Both stations must have just been from similar eras, that's all. She was safe, he wasn't here.

He couldn't hurt her.

"Please, follow me," the six eyed creature sounded like it was trying to purr. It turned around, beckoning them forward with another one of its tentacles. Everyone looked at each other and, after a silent moment, realized they didn't really have any other choice. The heavy feeling in Robyns chest only grew as they walked, to the point where she started to feel dizzy. She was sure her arms would bruise from where she had been holding herself together. "I'll inform the master you've arrived," Six-Eyes said. The quiet of the place had Robyn almost shaking. "He'll be delighted to have you, for dinner."

"Hear that? They're serving food," Lightning perked up, rubbing his hands together.

"And how much you wanna bet we're the main course?" Bounce glared at him.

" _Heartbeat irregularity. Immediate rest recommended."_ Robyn reached out and smacked Bounce's shoulder, perhaps a bit harder than she should have.

"Ow! What?" He glared at her and rubbed his shoulder. "Hasn't anyone seen 'My Dinner With Android'?"

"I have to admit," Superman shrugged. "This place does seem like something out of an old monster movie." Robyn watched as his eyes started to shift around the place, likely realizing that Bounce might not actually be that far off. She decided to stare at the floor so she didn't have to look at the walls anymore. There were hallways when there weren't supposed to be, none where they were supposed to be, and when they were where they were supposed to be, she remembered all too well where they led. "Any idea why the cruisers scanners didn't pick up any life forms?"

"Electromagnetic transmissions from the storm most likely," Brainy explained. "Saturn, can you do a telepathic sweep?" Saturn's eyes started to glow, fading just as quickly.

"Nothing," she sighed. "Whoever those voices belonged to, they're gone."

"For now," Bounce mumbled. Robyn caught herself mouthing what she was repeating in her head. _I'm not there. I'm not there. I'm not there._

With a loud groan the stairs in front of them raised to reveal another long descending staircase. The sudden noise caused Robyn to swing her arms away from her, ready to defend herself. Her hand hit something and she instinctively closed her fist around it. She turned to see that she had a death grip around Brainy's elbow.

"Sorry," she was surprised at the tremble in her own voice. She let go of his arm and took a step forward, only to be stopped by Brainy's hand wrapping around her own.

"I don't mind." he looked up at her. "You don't appear very comfortable here. If physical contact helps I am perfectly capable and willing to assist."

"What about the malfunctions?" Robyn could already feel herself relaxing, and the warning signs at the edge of her display were starting to close.

"I… I believe I have found the cause," he hesitantly responded. "And can now accommodate for them accordingly." despite what he said Robyn noticed he was still a bit stiffer than he usually stood. She must have been staring at him for a minute because he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

" _Heartbeat irregularity."_ Every logical part inside her was telling her to let go, to run, to look away and stay on the other end of the group. But the part of her that had her hand shaking and her heart beating was screaming for her to stay, to trust him, that he would protect her. She smiled.

"Thank you." he nodded and the two of them followed the others down the stairs.

The stairs led to large room that resembled an art gallery. There were many paintings lining the winding halls. Each depicted a very detailed, very terrified, figure mid scream against a solid white background.

"What's with all the paintings?" Superman voiced what everyone was thinking.

"You might say the master is a collector," the six eyed man responded.

* * *

" _I like to think I have a lovely little… collection, here."_

* * *

Robyn felt her grip on Brainy's hand tighten at the invading memory. The taste of blood in her mouth and the gentle tug on her arm urged her forward. They walked through a final door that opened into an elaborate dining room. There was a long table in the center of the room. In the middle were three, very tall, lit candles set atop a long, blood red table cloth. Four simple chandeliers dangled from the ceiling over each corner of the room and several floating chairs were pushed right up against the table. More paintings lined the walls, each accompanied by a dim light next to it.

"Dinner is served," Six-Eyes announced. There was a contraption against the far wall that looked like a large set of pointed teeth. It opened and several small bots floated into the room. They looked like serving trays, hovering around the table as everyone took a seat. Robyn sat next to Brainy, hesitantly prying her hand from his.

She wanted to reach out for him again, but not out of fear. This room didn't look familiar at all, but her heart was still beating quickly and she still felt dizzy. She glanced at Brainy and noticed that his chair seemed spaced further away, though all the chairs had seemed even when they walked in. Six-Eyes started going around the table pouring everyone's drinks. Robyn saw him pause by Bounce, whispering something to him, before a booming voice echoed around the room and cut off whatever he had been saying.

"That will be all, Boris," the voice from nowhere said. "Welcome, guests," it was now coming from the end of the table. They all snapped their heads in that direction as Boris shuffled from the room. Robyn was certain no one had been sat there a moment ago. "I am your host, Professor Planarus." Planarus was a tall and thin creature with two, short, twisted horns rising from the top of his head. Again, Robyn's goggles scanned him, producing the same result as Boris.

" _Scan inconclusive. Species unknown."_

"Thank you for your hospitality," Superman smiled. Robyn found herself gripping the chair underneath her in place of Brainy's hand. It wasn't working nearly as well. "We're the-"

"Legion of Superheroes, of course," Planarus cut him off with a large gesture. "Your reputation precedes you, even in this forgotten region of space."

"If you don't mind us asking," Saturn shifted in her chair. "What is this place?"

"An intergalactic rest stop," Planarus hummed. "For centuries now the storms in this sector have been wreaking havoc on passing vessels." Everything he said came out incredibly articulate, almost rehearsed. Robyn couldn't help but feel like he was putting on a show. A certain amount of practice would be inevitable with more visitors, but the way he spoke felt almost… programmed. "Quavermast Twelve provides a safe haven for weary travelers."

"Quavermast Twelve?" Bounce questioned.

"Named for its creator," Planarus explained. "But we can discuss that some other time. At the moment, your meals simply can't wait." everyone nodded in agreement and turned to the plates in front of them.

"Ma's chicken noodle soup," she heard Superman mumble. "How did you-?"

"The scanners obviously read our pallets when we arrived," Brainy explained before the question had even left his mouth.

"Well done," Planarus practically cooed from his end of the table.

* * *

" _Well done, pet."_

* * *

His voice echoed in her head again and she couldn't help but shiver as she raised her hand to reveal her own dish. The familiar scent of fish wafted up to her nose. The bottom of the canyon she had lived by cradled a wide river at the bottom and she would often used her glider to make her way down and fish. Less hassle than stealing food, she'd quickly realized. Something about the dish in front of her, however, made her uneasy. Something wasn't right here. She covered her meal back up.

"You aren't hungry?" Brainy looked up at her.

"I've lost my appetite." as if on cue, Bounce used his powers to cover his own meal with a loud yelp. Boris came and took his plate away as a quiet alarm started to beep from a device on Planarus's wrist.

"I regret to inform you," Robyn did not like the sound of that. "The docking bridge is out. Repairs can't be rendered till morning, you'll have to stay the night." Yup, Robyn officially didn't like Planarus or anything that came out of his stupid mouth.

The rest of dinner was rather uneventful, but Robyn swore the room was getting smaller. Eventually Boris returned, Planarus excused himself, and the group was lead down a small hallway. Funny. Robyn was sure there had only been one entrance in this room.

"I have personally prepared your chambers," Boris lead them down the hall, pausing as they reached the first set of doors. "I trust you'll find the accommodations _inviting_." He started to direct people towards certain rooms. First Superman, then Brainy, Saturn, Lightning, and then Robyn, saving Bounce for last.

If the door hadn't immediately shut and locked behind her she would have run back out into the hallway and back to the ship, bridge or no bridge.

" _Vitals rapidly destabilizing,"_ her goggles chimed. " _Immediate care highly recommended."_ Robyn was shaking, and the breaths she was taking were far to small for what she needed right now.

This wasn't possible. This room… Damian was nowhere near her, it was impossible for this room to be here. Her legs gave out as she looked at the small metal bed in the corner of the empty room. A crude carving of a bird was etched into the wall, hidden just beneath the bed. She clawed at the door to keep herself on her feet but felt the cold of the floor seeping up through her jeans as she fell to her knees. She leaned against the door, breathing sporadically. Her eyes darted around the room. A large dent in the left wall, marks across the floor where equipment was regularly moved, and a split down the wall where he kept-

" _Vitals rapidly de-"_ she yanked the goggles down around her neck before they could repeat the message and raised her other hand to the back of her head. To the familiar bump of scar tissue.

Suddenly she was on her feet again, desperately trying to open the door. When that didn't work she started to ram her shoulder into it. All she could hear was the sound of her own heartbeat, all she could feel was the tremors threatening to send her to her knees again. The faint echo of familiar laughter rippled through the room.

Suddenly the door finally gave and swung open under her weight. She fell to her knees in the hallway, breathing heavily and staring at the metal floor, tears threatening to spill from her uncovered eyes.

A loud scream from the end of the hallway had her on her feet 's voice suddenly echoed in her head.

" _Bounce is in trouble!"_ she fixed her goggles back over her eyes and dashed towards the end of the hall as everyone started pouring from their rooms. She tried the handle but it wouldn't budge. They all stood back as Superman flew at the door, easily breaking it open. it flew across the room and shattered against the far wall.

"Bounce!" Superman called as they all entered the room, ready to fight.

"Where did he go?" Lightning asked no one in particular as they all scanned the room. Saturn's eyes started to glow.

"Through there." she pointed to the open closet. Everyone piled into the narrow hallway, running in what felt like a straight line until they heard Bounce screaming behind the wall. Superman quickly punched through to the hallway on the other side, where they found Bounce, cornered by some large, snarling monster.. It had tendrils wrapped around Bounce's feet, dragging him closer while Bounce thrashed around, screaming.

A light began shining above his head which quickly grew until it formed a sort of portal. Bounce seemed to stretch as he was dragged through by some unseen force. Superman used his heat vision to destroy the monster attacking Bounce, but it was too late. The portal closed just as Superman reached him and the room melted into a dark hallway with several exposed pipes and wires lining the ceiling.

They all started scanning the room, searching for any sign of where Bounce could have gone.

"There's no trace of him!" Brainy's frustration slipped out in his voice.

"Or our hosts," Superman added, using his x-ray vision. Robyn was using her gloves to tap the floor, searching for any hollow spaces using echolocation sensors she'd designed as a backup for if the night vision mode ever failed. She found nothing. "Saturn, any luck?" Saturn's eyes, which had been glowing for a solid minute, the longest Robyn had ever seen, faded to normal as she turned to the rest of them.

"No, nothing," she sighed.

Four large metal walls violently slammed down around the group, closing them in. There was barely enough space for all of them. The floor slid back to reveal a set of stairs, causing them all to stumble. Brainy seemed to get the worst of it, and it looked like he was about to fall down the rest of the steps. Robyn quickly reached out her hand to grab his wrist, activating the magnetization in her glove and setting it against the wall to keep herself from falling down after him. He steadied himself and Robyn let go.

"Thanks," he looked down the stairs.. She nodded in response and activated the night vision on her goggles to see what was at the bottom. They must have gone down a long way because she still couldn't see anything.

"Looks like we're going down," Lightning offered sarcastically..

"It could be a trap!" Saturn protested.

"For Bounce's sake," Superman started to fly down the stairs. "Do we have a choice?"Saturn sighed as they followed him. Several minutes of tense quiet passed and the stairs eventually let out into the hallway filled with all the paintings. They all quickly flew through the room, not paying much attention, when Saturn gasped from the back of the group.

"I think I just found Bounce." the others quickly flew back to her, looking up at a painting of Bounce screaming. Robyn felt a shiver go down her spine.

"By all appearances it's just a painting," Brainy observed. "I think Quavermast Twelve is more than just a ship."

"No shit," Robyn muttered, managing to tear her eyes from the painting. They all continued flying down the hall until they reached a dead end. The wall suddenly warped and melted in front of them to reveal what looked like a childs bedroom.

"What is this place?" Superman asked as they all walked into the room. The wall closed back up behind them. Everything seemed larger than usual, as it would look to a child.

"My… bedroom," Lightning hesitated. Everyone quickly circled him, facing out towards the rest of the room, ready for whatever was going to come at them. Robyn couldn't help but notice that there were two beds in the room, one blue and one pink.

"There's a holographic simulator at work here," Brainy concluded. "Obviously Lightning is the next target."

"Come on guys, I don't need your protection," Lightning chuckled. "I'm home." he floated up and out of the protective circle.

"Clearly you're forgetting what happened in Bounce's simulation," Robyn frowned at him. Lightning floated over to the blue bed sat down.

"What could _I_ possibly be afraid of?" he grinned.

" _What could possibly go wrong?"_ Robyn mocked him quietly as she leaned against the wall. Saturn moved to sit on the other bed as Brainy and Superman started to look around the room. Superman flew up and used his x-ray vision to look outside.

"I think we can get to the ship from here," he announced. "At least there we'll have more fire power."

"And force whatever is behind this into releasing Bounce," Brainy nodded in agreement. Superman used his heat vision to try melting a hole into the wall. But the wall quickly reformed.

"The ship's repairing itself." Saturn stood. "Quavermast doesn't want us to leave."

"We'll see about that." Superman flew up to attack the wall again, when a giant hand appeared out of nowhere and pinned him to a wall.

"Don't remember having these things in my bedroom," Lightning joked.

"Automatic defenses," Brainy explained. "They're not part of the hologram." They all flew up to help Superman but hands quickly shot out and pinned the rest of them to the walls too. Robyn was vaguely aware of what was going on until the hand pinning her to the wall suddenly split, grabbing both her wrists and ankles.

Suddenly all she could see was the vivid memory of being suspended above the ground, cold metal wrapped painfully tight around her wrists and ankles. Hair, much shorter and far brighter than she remembered, falling over her shoulders and eyes. A familiar set of thick boots stepping in front of her. She didn't have to look to know he was grinning.

The memory was pushed from her mind as her body collided with the floor. She was breathing in too much too fast. Her lungs were on fire. One hand was gripping the back of her neck and the other was barely holding her up. He was here, he had to be. She had almost been able to smell him. There was a hand on her shoulder.

She threw her arm out, grabbing the shirt of whoever it was and pushing them into the floor as she rolled on top of them, pinning them beneath her. Her hand was raised back, energy blade activated ready to attack. She blinked a few times and finally the image in front of her faded from bright gold eyes to wide blue ones as she realized it was Superman underneath her, hands held out beside him to show he wasn't going to hurt her. She sat there for a moment, steadying her breath and remembering where she was. When she did she rose to her feet quickly, shut down the energy blade, and took several steps back.

"Where's Lightning?"

"Are you alright, Robyn?" Saturn asked, taking a cautious step forward.

"I'm fine," she snapped. Her heart had calmed a bit."Where's Lightning?" she asked again.

"It took him," Brainy explained, helping Superman to his feet.

"What's going on here?" Superman glared at the room.

"Fear," Brainy answered, as if it were the most obvious thing. "The ship knows what scares us. Bounce's movies, Lightnings doll."

"Just like it knew what we wanted to eat," Saturn added. One of the walls slid aside to reveal another hallway.

"Don't worry guys. I'll keep you safe," Superman was trying to sound brave. Robyn knew him well enough to know it was just for them. The four of them flew inside.

The door behind them closed and they were surrounded by a heavy darkness. Robyn twitched her fingers to activate the night vision on her goggles. The others were nowhere to be seen.

"Brainy?" she called out. "Superman? Satu-" The lights turned back on, and Robyn yelped when the unnaturally bright light hit her eyes. She quickly turned off night vision and looked around. "No," she spun around the grey room and found a clear window, showing a small, empty courtyard. "No!

"Good morning, my little bird," cooed a familiar voice.

"No!" Robyn covered her ears and squeezed her eyes shut. "You aren't real, you aren't real, it's not real."

"Why are you hiding, darling?" it said. "Let mommy see those pretty eyes of yours." Robyns hands instinctively left her ears to rest on the edge of her goggles.

"Robyn, don't listen to it!" she heard Brainy's voice. "Its a mmf-!" suddenly a loud bang echoed around the room and Robyn had to lean against the wall to keep herself from falling.

"Little bird," it repeated. She ran to the window and started to bang on it with a strength she hadn't had in a long time.

* * *

 _ **Embedded tracker activated. Location: Quavermast Twelve, Sector: R3- 84.**_

* * *

"Ro." The glass splintered but held together no matter how many times she hit it. The back of her neck was practically on fire, but she didn't care.

* * *

 _ **Embedded tracker activated. Location: Quavermast Twelve, Sector: R3- 84.**_

* * *

 _ **Embedded tracker activated. Location: Quavermast Twelve, Sector: R3- 84.**_

* * *

 _ **Embedded tracker activated. Location: Quavermast Twelve, Sector: R3- 84.**_

* * *

"I am afraid there is nothing I can do, Vivena," a too calm voice said. "You stand charged with attempted treason."Another _bang_ echoed around the room and Robyn fell to her knees, shaking.

"Alright, show's over," said a low, raspy voice that had Robyn standing and looking around with speed no human could have.

* * *

 _ **Embedded tracker activated. Location: Quavermast Twelve, Sector: R3- 84.**_

* * *

"No, no, no, no!"

"Come along now, Ila."

She felt herself scream but no sound came out. She couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. The only sound she could hear was him chuckling just out of her sight, she felt the back of her neck burn as the tracker was placed into her bone. She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry, she wanted to fight, to run, to escape him. But she couldn't move.

" _No matter where you run,"_ his voice whispered by her ear. ' _No matter who you hide behind, you will never be rid of me. You know what I do to people who take what's mine."_ she was trembling. " _What you've done to people who stand in my way."_

"I broke it," her voice was shaking. "You can't make me to that anymore." he chuckled.

" _You know you'll do whatever I say, Ila."_

She was in the courtyard outside the tower. There were bodies strewn across the floor. The Legion. All of them. She knew better than to hope they were alright.

"What have you done…" she fell to her knees.

" _I didn't,"_ she felt his hand on the back of her neck. " _You did."_

* * *

And suddenly she was falling. Her body hit the cold floor. She laid there for a moment, letting the pain of the impact rush through her body to remind her what was real and what was memory.

"Robyn?" she heard a cautious voice in front of her and snapped her head up to see Saturn's concerned face. Her expression made Robyn's stomach turn. Saturn winced.

"It's Superman," she looked over at Lightning and Bounce, who were stood only a few feet away. "There's something wrong, he's in great pain!" Robyn pulled herself to her feet and managed to follow Saturn through the twisting halls until they entered a large room filled with smoke.

Superman flew down to them, carrying Brainy's body in his arms. Robyn felt her shoulder slam into the wall as her legs gave out and a sharp pain shot through her chest. Superman landed and sat on his knees, gently setting Brainy down on the floor.

"I wanted to save him," he almost whispered. "But I had to choose."

"Alright, who has the backup disk?" was all Bounce asked in response.

"What are you talking about?" Superman looked at them.

"Brainy always keeps a backup of himself," Lightning explained with a grin. "Just in case."

"You mean this?" Superman pulled a small device out of his pocket. Robyn let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. They made their way back to the ship, pausing to talk to a few people in the halls. Robyn had to fight to keep her eyes off Brainy's limp body.

Once they were back on the ship Robyn went straight to her room, locked the door, yanked her goggles from her face, and laid down on her bed. A few hours passed and she heard someone knock on her door. She didn't respond. Eventually the ship started moving again. She knew he had woken up, but she knew if she saw him, up and moving, breathing and smiling, she wouldn't be able to do it.

* * *

It only took them a day to make it back to the tower on Earth, and by the time they landed Robyn had already made up her mind. She flew to her room without so much as glancing at the others. The door locked behind her as she pulled her bag from her closet. The picture, knife, and the tattered remains of her old jacket and jean shorts were all stuffed into the bag. She then slipped the ring off her finger and unclipped the emblem from her belt, setting both on her night stand. She sat on her bed until she was certain everyone had gone to sleep.

And she left.

The walk home went from a few hours to a day and a half without her glider. Only when her stomach was screaming at her for not eating in nearly two days did she stop and snatch some food from a vendor in town. She was rusty. It had been almost a year since she had to do this and she'd nearly gotten caught. Eventually the familiar sight of her crashed ship was within sight.

She didn't regret her decision as she threw her bag into the corner and stared at the large monitor. She didn't regret it when her fingers twitched subconsciously, turning on the monitor still set up to the cameras she'd hacked in the tower. The Legionnaires were gathered in the lounge.

"Why would she just leave?" Lightning yelled.

"You didn't see it, Lightning," Saturn glared at him. "She probably just needs space!"

"She left without saying anything!" was his response. Brainy was sat quietly on the couch, staring at the floor. Another twitch of her fingers and the monitor turned off.

She didn't regret her decision as she leaned against the cold wall and slid down onto what she called a bed.

It had gone on long enough. She'd given these people the power to hurt her, the power to break her, and she hadn't even realized it. That look on Saturn's face, Robyns stomach turned just at the thought of it.

Pity.

Robyn didn't need their pity, she didn't need their help, and she certainly didn't need their friendship. She wanted it. She had managed just fine on her own for longer than she cared to remember, because she had to. But she'd gotten greedy..

They wouldn't turn on her, no. No they cared, and she knew they did. But they weren't supposed to. They weren't supposed to get attached. She wasn't supposed to get attached.

The image of Brainy's lifeless body, the vision of them all scattered on the ground because of her was what finally made her run. They said they would protect her. She should have left before that, when they wouldn't have cared if she left. When she wouldn't have cared what happened to them. He wouldn't stop. He would cut through anyone she hid behind again, and again.

She looked around the crashed aircraft, breathing in the familiar sight.

She would have to move again.

Maybe she'd manage to get off Earth this time.


	11. 7- Too Far

Robyn sat on the roof of the massive archive building, goggles resting on the top of her head, a thin sandwich in her hands, listening to the dull thrum of the city below. It had been about three weeks since she left the Legion, and she had almost scrapped together enough money to buy her way onto a ship. Of course the media had picked up quickly. Practically every headline read "The Queen of Thieves Returns To New Metropolis."

And of course she had to change her patterns up drastically, as the Legion was hunting her down like she'd shot their collective mother. She sighed, slid her unfinished food into a small bag, and leaned back on her hands. The stars winked down at her, and she couldn't help but smile. She'd seen a lot of the stars lately.

While she had been out collecting materials, one of her alarms had gone off. The Legion had found her crashed aircraft only four days after she left, so she had been staying in various back alleys and abandoned houses. Today she was lucky to have a spot with a view, and sat only a few feet away from the forgotten tool shed she planned to spend the next few hours in.

A large transport ship suddenly came into orbit above her, quickly making its way to the dock. Robyn couldn't help but remember the last time she had been on one of those.

* * *

 _Five Years Ago_

She had been younger then. Thirteen, if she remembered correctly. Her eyes were covered by hastily made goggles, and instead of gloves, she had tight metal clasps around her wrists equipped with small lasers, prototype energy fields, and repair tools.

The Legion of Superheroes. Politically speaking they were sandwiched somewhere between the President, the Science Police, and some sort of private task force. But they were strong, everyone knew that. And they had a positive public opinion, so Robyn had heard.

It took her about two hours, but she eventually found her way to the tower. There was a flood of people outside. The Legion had only been in operation for about five years, but the public response had far surpassed anything anyone could have guessed.

Robyn pushed her way through the crowd. She was already late. After a few minutes of shoving she finally made her way to the now empty sign in line. There was a girl with split purple, white, and orange hair packing up.

"Wait!" Robyn called out. "Wait please!" the girl looked up. She must have been about fifteen.

"Sorry," she gave an apologetic smile. "All the slots are filled up." Robyn felt her heart drop to her stomach.

"No, no, no, please," she walked up to the table, feeling smaller by the second. "Isn't there anyway? I can't be too late…" the girl looked startled, and maybe a bit confused. After a moment she sighed and sat back down.

"Give me your information," she pulled her tablet back out. "If an opening shows up I might be able to squeeze you in." Robyn nearly melted in relief.

"Thank you," she smiled. "Thank you so much." the girl nodded.

"Your name?"

"Robyn An-" she paused. "Robyn Talvra." best not to take any chances. The girl nodded, typing her name into the form.

"Your tag?"

"My what?"

"Your code name," the girl chuckled. "We all use them, both for privacy and professionalism."

"I don't… I don't have one." Robyn looked down. The girl hummed, looking over Robyn's attire.

"I'll put you down for Specs," she said, typing that in as well. "But you can change it whenever you want." Robyn nodded."And your power?" Robyn froze. She really hadn't thought this through.

"I don't… I don't technically... have any," she started. The girl opened her mouth. "But I'm really good with technology!" she explained quickly. "It's always just sort of clicked for me. I made... I made these myself from scratch!" she gestured to her goggles. The girl thought for a moment, as if fighting with herself.

Suddenly a second version of her appeared, solid orange, and Robyn noticed the original consisted of only purple and white now. The orange one ran off into the building.

"Wow," Robyn watched after the orange girl.

"That's my power," the girl smiled and reached out her hand to Robyn. "I'm Triplicate." Robyn smiled and shook her hand.

"Hi." the girl pulled back her hand and suddenly frowned.

"We usually don't audition people without powers," she explained. Robyn's smile faded. "And I'm not sure how far 'a natural affinity with technology' will get you, especially since we got Brainy last year."

"Brainiac 5?" she knew that name.

"You've heard of him?" Triplicate smiled. "He's quite impressive. Now _I_ don't see any problem in having more than one genius around, but," she paused and looked towards the building. "The others might not share my position." Robyn looked down and nodded. A quiet moment passed between them. "You're not from around here, huh Robyn?" Triplicate leaned her elbow on the table and rest her chin in her hand. Robyn shook her head.

"I'm from… I'm from Venegar." it wasn't a lie. Triplicate sat up straighter.

"That's quite a ways away," she looked down at Robyn. "Did you and your family move here?" Robyn tensed.

"You could say that." Triplicate didn't ask any more questions. Another minute passed and the orange triplet returned.

"They said they'll let her audition if there's time," the orange one smiled. "Saturn suggested treating it as a technician interview rather than an audition." Robyn was practically bouncing in place. The orange triplet joined back to the original as the other two (Robyn assumed there was one for each color) scanned a number onto a sticker and handed it over to her. The sticker read _O.F. 001._

"That means you're the first in the overflow line," Triplicate explained. "There's a lot more people here than usual this year, so we considered an overflow line. You were the first to come up after all the time slots were taken." she finished packing up her things. "If you don't get an audition today, try coming back tomorrow, we may need a few days to get through this many people."

"Thank you, Triplicate." Robyn nodded. Triplicate smiled in return before flying inside.

Robyn turned and walked back into the center of the large pool of people gathered in the courtyard. She sat down on a rock, performing check-ups on all of her equipment. She had only managed to finish a few of the programs she had been working on before she landed on Earth. Night vision was functional, echolocation was glitchy, but considering it was a back up that would be fine, and the database she'd put together was working like a charm, taking notes on things based on her eye movements.

"Nice suit," she heard someone sneer next to her. She turned to see a boy, maybe only a year older than her, smirking down at her. He was wearing a skin tight suit, like pretty much everyone but her, with several bright colors that didn't match at all and honestly kind of hurt her eyes. "Pull it out of the trash?" another kid, probably younger than Robyn, chuckled from behind him. Robyn looked down at her clothes. A long sleeved dark blue sweater, jeans, and shoes, she wasn't sure if they were a specific kind. She'd had these as long as she could remember.

"You don't look any better, tough guy," she smirked. "Trust me, no one wants to see those scrawny arms. What's your power, turning into a toothpick?" they boys face turned bright red, setting off the colors of his suit even more.

"I'm the fastest man ever!" his friend took a step forward, trying and failing to look intimidating to back up his partner. "That's better than whatever your dumb power is!"

"Intelligence," she turned from him, continuing to run her system checks. "Clearly never something you've had to worry over." suddenly her goggles were snatched from her head. "Hey!" she stood and glared at the boy, stood in the same spot but now holding her goggles.

"Bet you're not so tough without the- what the?!" his eyes met hers and she quickly looked away. She tapped the bracers around her wrists together and thin energy fields surrounded her hands.

"She's a freak!" his friend squeaked in. "No humans got those eyes!"

She quickly moved forward and punched the colorful boy in the chest, sending him flying back and catching her goggles before they hit the ground. The boy hadn't even stood up by the time the familiar tinted lenses were back in place. He stood and glared at her. She quickly had her goggles analyze how fast he had been going. He charged at her and at the last second she stepped out of the way, holding her fist out to punch him in the chest again. He started to fall down but she grabbed his arm and used it to spin him around so he landed on his stomach. Robyn held him down with her foot on his back and his arm held out behind him.

"Get off me you freak!"

"That's enough," a voice said behind her. It was the first time she'd noticed the small crowd gathered around them. A boy pushed his way through. He had green skin, short shaggy blonde hair, and the legion emblem clipped to his belt. A small breeze passed and Robyn saw three circles detailed on his forehead. She let go of the boys wrist and removed her foot, stepping a few feet back. The colorful boy stood and glared at her. "There is to be no fighting between auditioners. I will have to add this to both of your files." he walked over to the colorful boy and held a hand out in front of the sticker on his chest. The image went fuzzy for a moment before returning to normal. He then walked over to her and did the same.

The boy and his friend scoffed and glared at her before walking off. The blonde boy looked over his shoulder at them as they walked off.

"Would it be inappropriate for me to ask what that was about?" he turned back to her and tilted his head. She squinted at him for a moment and shook her head. They were almost eye level, she was slightly taller.

"There is fine line between being confident and being an asshole," was all the explanation she gave. He chuckled as she turned to walk away.

"H-hey wait," he jogged to stand in front of her again. Did an android just stutter? "You're the one Triplicate told us about. Specs." Robyn cringed.

"Just Robyn," she sighed. He smiled and held out his hand.

"I am Brainiac 5,"

"So I heard," she looked down at his hand and hesitated before shaking it.

It was a pleasant surprise that he hadn't assumed the fight was her fault. She had noticed that people had a tendency to get mad at her for no reason other than existing too close to them. It was a nice change to have someone eager to interact with her. Even if he was maybe a little too eager.

She made a mental note to start assembling a health monitor. Her heartbeat had sped up, though she had barely moved at all in that 'fight'. Maybe Earth's atmosphere was slightly different than she was used to.

Her goggles were supposed to take notes on things based on how long she looked at them, therefore determining how important they were. But they must be malfunctioning, because she kept getting notes on how his hair looked like it changed color in different light, or how long they held eye contact, and her goggles made extra sure she knew he was walking backwards to face her while she walked. Maybe because he was an android, and therefore mostly mechanical, her equipment was glitching out around him. He opened his mouth to speak but a loud chime from the tower sounded throughout the courtyard before he could.

"I have to be going," he seemed almost sad. She only nodded and offered a small wave in response. "See you around!" He left and her heart seemed to beat even faster.

The next few hours passed by rather slowly. Robyn found herself sat by the pond skipping rocks, or trying to make shapes in the clouds. She had heard some children on the ship she had been on talk about how fun it was to make pictures with the clouds, but she could only see blobs and quickly decided to go back to skipping stones.

The courtyard slowly thinned until it was just her, the boy (he'd been bumped to the end of the line for fighting), and his friend. The sun was slowly setting and the courtyard was quiet, which Robyn much preferred over the unintelligible roar it had been.

She sat on a bench by the main door, avoiding looking at the boy in grey and waiting for his multicolored friend to finish his audition. A quiet hum began to emanate from the sticker on her chest. She stood and waited in front of the door, heart beating quickly again, though this time she knew why.

The door slid open and the boy in the colorful suit walked out. He glared at her and rammed his shoulder into hers as he walked passed. She took a deep breath and walked inside. The door slid closed behind her with a quiet _hiss_.

Inside was a tall wall, with several people sat behind it. There was the android, Brainiac 5, and the three colored girl, Triplicate, among two others she had seen pictures of on her way here. There was a girl with short blonde hair dressed head to toe in bright pink, making Robyn wince, and a boy with bright red hair and a lightning bolt symbol prominently displayed on his chest.

"Robyn Talvra?" the boy with the red hair asked. She noticed that her gaze had lingered on the android again when her goggles let her know that he smiled and sat up straighter when he saw her. She quickly turned off her database display before turning to the red head and nodding.

"We usually don't audition anyone without powers," the blonde girl stated. "But Triplicate insisted."

"It says here you got into a fight with Speeder outside," the redhead looked at a holoscreen in front of him. Robyn opened her mouth to speak but he cut her off. "We just auditioned him. Trust me, whatever he did he probably deserved it. But we'd like to hear your side of the story." Robyn nodded.

"He came up to me while I was running equipment tests and made fun of my clothes," she crossed her arms. "I did the same, continued what I was doing, and then he stole my goggles right off my head. Then he called me-" she paused. "He called me a freak. I assume because of my… appearance. I received some scars in an accident when I was younger." not a lie.

"What kind of accident?" the blonde girl leaned forward, as if concerned.

"I'd rather not discuss it," Robyn said bluntly.

"Of course," the redhead nodded. "How old are you, Robyn?"

"I'm thirteen,"

"Tell us about those goggles," he gestured to them. "How long did it take you to make them?"

"Three months," she said. "But only because I didn't have the pieces I needed. If I had it all now I could do it in three days at most." Brainiac 5 sat up straighter, eyes wide and mouth open in surprise.

"That is actually quite impressive for a human," he said. "What features do they have?" Robyn went through her checklist in her head, holding the younger boys gaze.

"Not everything is fully functioning right now," she explained. "Again simply because of materials. But among what is: night vision, with a prototype echolocation system as a backup, and scanners linked to a database I'm in the process of compiling."

"Is there anything you plan on adding?" Brainiac 5 seemed intrigued. Robyn was almost worried he would fall over the ledge with how far he was leaning forward.

"I currently have plans for a health monitor and have been designing upgrades for these." she held up her arms to show the braces around her wrists.

"You seem very intelligent," the blonde girl said. "Why come to us instead of the Institute of Technology, or something similar?"

"I have my reasons." mainly legal reasons. Paperwork. The Legion bent enough rules simply by existing, and Robyn hoped that might extend to her. The girl nodded.

"Could you give us a demonstration?" she asked. Robyn nodded and tapped a button on the side of her goggles. A low beep was all she received in response.

"What?" She tapped another button. The same response. "I don't understand, I checked everything a dozen times." she tapped more buttons on her wrist guards. Nothing was responding. "No, no, no, no, I swear this was all working ten minutes ago!" she looked up. Her heart dropped when she saw them all looking down at her sadly.

"If you can't give us a demo-" the girl in pink tried to say.

"No!" she was pushing every button, trying to get it to work.  
"I'm sorry," the girl said. "But we were already out of time when you came in here." Robyn slumped. This couldn't be happening. "You're more than welcome to come try again next year." she turned back towards the door and left without another word.

This couldn't be it. It couldn't have been for nothing.

"How'd it go in there _Specs_?" she heard a familiar voice next to her. Speeder, as she now knew he went by, and his friend were leaning against the wall. His friend grinned and a few sparks flew from his fingers.

"You... " her voice caught in her throat. "You sabotaged me."

"You accusing me?" he stomped up to her. "Do you know who I am? My _dad_ is the governor of Earth." he was only inches away from her now. "You're just a weird-eyed freak in broken glasses." she looked down and walked passed him, ignoring the names he spat after her.

She found herself in the park on a bench. The sun had set nearly an hour ago, and her goggles were clenched tightly in her hands. Her knees were pulled to her chest and her head rest in her arms. She had stopped crying a while ago.

Auditions wouldn't be for another year, and she'd used all her money to get here. There must be someone else here, another group she could join, someone who could keep her safe. Someone who might stand a chance against him, at least half as well as the Legion could have. She looked up and finally noticed the stars above her. The hunt for another group would have to wait. She needed to find somewhere to stay the night.

* * *

 _Present Day_

Robyn stood from her place at the edge of the roof and stuffed the rest of her forgotten sandwich into the small brown bag at her hip. She walked over to the tool shed and stepped inside. When the door closed she stuck a small device to it. A green energy field covered the side of the door she could see. She cracked opened the window and threw another, slightly larger, device out. It hovered for a moment before zipping over to the next closest building. She pulled up a small holoscreen from her gloves to make sure the camera was working.

With a bit of effort, she managed to move enough things around to tuck herself into a corner. A few minutes passed, and she had almost managed to fall asleep, when a small shock to her arm alerted her that someone was approaching the shed. She quickly pulled up the screen and swore under her breath at what she saw. Lightning, Superman, Saturn, Bounce, and Brainy were all stood on the roof where she had been sat only minutes before.

"According to our scanners she was just here," was all she heard Superman say before shutting down the screen. She looked at the device on the door for a second before deciding to leave it. Maybe it would buy her some time. She quickly activated her soundproofing and a green haze covered her body. As quietly as possible, she opened the window and jumped out. On her way down she shot a chord from her glove. The gripped end embedded itself in wall and she pulled herself to it. After activating the energy fields around her gloves she quickly scaled down the building into the alley below.

A deactivated waste collection machine was parked up against the far wall. Robyn ran to it. She managed to squeeze under it, and pulled herself up into a tube that had split open. She pulled it closed around her and used a few small devices to hold it in place. Her fingers twitched and she held her breath when a screen opened in her goggles. The Legionaries were nowhere to be seen. She held her hand out in front of her and moved it slowly, causing the camera at the top of the building to lower itself so it was crawling, rather than flying, and peered over the edge.

The Legionaries were floating down into the alley. She quickly deactivated all of her equipment except for a small green dome around her head, and the green haze around her body. She heard footsteps. Several, almost painful, moments passed, and she even felt the disposal machine she was hiding in lift from the ground temporarily. Probably Superman. She wasn't sure why they were so determined to find her. The most likely thing she could think of was they were angry she had started stealing again.

"She couldn't have gone far," she heard Lightning's voice. A minute passed.

"Brainy?" Saturn's voice was soft. Robyn imagined him standing there, staring down at the ground, and she had to stop herself from leaving her hiding place. "We'll find her, don't worry." more quiet. Saturn sighed. Robyn sat, frozen, for another five minutes before reactivating enough of her equipment to look through the camera again.

They were gone. She collapsed against the tube and took in a deep breath. After reactivating the rest of her equipment, she carved a small hole in the tube so she could breathe.

It was nowhere near ideal, but she couldn't risk moving again tonight. She counted the credits she had. Just enough for a ticket. She would have to make due with what food she already had with her. She couldn't afford to stay here any longer.

They were getting too close to finding her. Tomorrow would have to work.

* * *

 _Robyn was back in the tower. A breeze hit her bare arms and she immediately realized all her equipment was gone. She looked around the room. She knew she was in the lounge, although nothing looked quite right. Things had been moved, added._

 _She turned and saw Brainy. Her hands darted up to cover her eyes._

" _Shit! I can- I can explain!" she felt hands on her wrists and opened her eyes to look down at him. He was smiling at her. "Brainy?" she took a cautious step forward. He slowly lowered their hands laced their fingers together. Robyn looked down at their hands then back to him. He seemed relaxed. "Brainy what's going on?" it felt like her heart was trying to escape her chest. She heard footsteps behind her._

" _Hello, pet." She spun around and nearly fell to her knees. It was_ him _. He was holding a gun to Brainy's head. "I think you've had enough play time now, don't you?"_

" _Let him go!" she felt energy radiating off her body. He chuckled. Gold and white eyes met black and green._

" _I'm afraid you're too late, Ila." suddenly Brainy was on the floor, a hole through his head._

" _No!" she fell to her knees and pulled him to her chest. That's when she saw the others. Superman, Saturn, Lightning, Phantom, Triplicate, Timberwolf, Bounce, all scattered across the floor._

" _This could have all been avoided, Ila." His voice came from behind her this time. She spun around and the room dissolved into a familiar dark grey room. "If you had just stayed here, played along like a good guard dog, no one else would have had to-"_

" _No!"_

 _The world dissolved again and he was nowhere to be seen. There was a hand on her shoulder and she spun around ready to attack. He caught her hand.. He didn't look like anything, but she knew who it was. He was older. And she wasn't hiding anymore._

 _Brainy placed his hands on her shoulders, and she slowly started to reach for him._

 _There was a loud_ bang _. Robyn looked down and saw a hole through his chest._

" _No," another_ bang. " _Stop it!" she pushed him away._

* * *

She opened her eyes. The air was too warm, too stale. She was dizzy. Her hands hit the walls as she tried to break through. It was too small. She couldn't breathe, she had to get out. Without thinking she charged up the laser cannon in her glove and shot a hole clean through the top of the collection machine. She climbed out and pulled herself onto the hood, hand clutching at her heart.

Not tomorrow. She had to leave tonight.


	12. 8- On The Run

_Three Years Ago_

It had been two years since her audition. Robyn tried to think about it as little as possible. She walked through the streets, trying to stick to the most crowded areas, as she made her way to the market. Her hair had grown, she never bothered to cut it anymore, and it almost reached her waist now. She'd very quickly outgrown her jeans, and, with as little money as she had, new clothes were pretty far down on her list of needs. Instead she had cut and resized her jeans a number of times over the years, and they now rested just above her knees. They were starting to get tight again though. Robyn she'd have to cut them up to mid thigh this time. She had caved and bought a new shirt a few months back, a simple black, sleeveless top.

Thanks to her new line of work, her equipment had been heavily upgraded as well. The gloves she'd wanted to make were completed, the base for a belt was back at her home, and she'd even started working on designs for boots.

She hadn't wanted to steal, she tried not to for as long as she could, but she didn't have any identification required to get a job. Turns out she was really good at it. She gradually escalated from food to tech when she needed up start upgrading. After that it only took a few months for the Scavengers to contact her. They had asked her to get back some tech that had been confiscated during a raid on one of their smaller bases. She'd managed, and even got a decent take of the parts for herself. She started taking on bigger jobs on her own, working her way up, selling to other groups and building her own equipment until she was able to get inside even the Technology Museum and Time Institute. Only small things, of course, and never too frequently.

The Scavengers had a job for her tonight. But she hadn't eaten all day, and she had enough spare cash to splash out on some _legal_ groceries. She got what she needed and left the store. She walked to the park and sat down at a table, kicking her feet up on the other side of the bench. She pulled an instant meal from her bag and cracked the seal. The food inside reacted with the air and grew until the tray was filled with warm stew. Robyn pulled the small spoon from the packaging and began to eat.

She was only half way through her meal when she noticed a boy standing at the end of the table. He was standing very stiffly, and his wide blue eyes were looking anywhere but at her.

"Can I sit- Can I sit here?" he gestured to the table. Robyn looked around the park. There was one table with about five boys sitting at it, all around Robyns age and all laughing (Robyn swore they were looking at her), but aside from that and the table she sat at, all of them were empty.

"I guess?" she grabbed her stuff and stood.

"Oh, no no no!" the boy finally looked her in the eye and was waving his hands in front of him. "I-I didn't mean you had to move, it's just… well you looked kind of lonely… so I thought… Well I thought you might want some company." Robyn analized him from behind her goggles before sitting back down. He was nervous. A minute passed without either of them saying anything before the boy sat down on the other side of the table. "My name's Davik," he held his hand out to her. She looked down at it before turning back to her food.

"Kit,"

"Are you new to New Metropolis?" he asked, quickly retracting his hand when it was obvious she wasn't going to return the gesture. "I don't think I've seen you around before."

"I'm from outside the city," she took another bite. "I don't visit that often."

"What are you here for today?"

"Do you ask everyone this many questions?" she didn't trust him. There was no reason for him to talk to her, no reason for him to be nervous. Everything about this situation put her on edge.

"No, no I'm sorry I'm just nervous." he looked down at his hands which were clenched into uncomfortably tight fists in his lap.

"I noticed." she stood and grabbed her things.

"I'm sorry, I didn't- I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," he stood as well.

"You didn't, I'm just busy." she walked off before he had a chance to respond. She walked about a mile before ducking into a small alley. She took a moment to make sure Davik hadn't followed her before leaving and making her way back to the small abandoned housing complex she called home.

She set her groceries into the small cooler next to her mattress as a quiet beep started to ring in her ear. She tapped the side of her goggles.

"Talvra, change of plans." said a familiar voice. "I've been told to give you a briefing before tonight, I need you here as soon as possible."

"On it, Varik," she responded. "I'll be there in twenty." she opened the window at the back of her house and hopped out. It was getting dark, but not quite dark enough for the fastest way, across the tops of the buildings, so she would have to go through the back alleys. She must be getting faster, because it only took her twelve minutes to get there this time. She walked into an alley and stood in the center. She crossed her arms, hummed a quick tune, and tapped her left foot three times.

A small section of the wall in front of her slid away, just small enough for her to fit without having to crouch. It immediately shut behind her and the lights in the hallway in front of her turned on. She moved forward, footsteps echoing off the dark metal walls. The hallway turned once and lead into a large room filled with a massive computer that rose all the way to the ceiling, and several scavengers walking around.

"Talvra!" she turned and saw a scavenger, with slightly more color in his uniform than the rest, waving her over from the top of a set of stairs at the far wall. She made her way up to him and followed him into his office. There was a small desk and chair close to the left wall with two small chairs set in front of it, several miscellaneous weapons decorating the back wall, and a large monitor showing the alley Robyn had come in took up most of the space on the right wall.

"Alright, what don't I know?" she leaned against the armrest of the closest chair and crossed her arms. Varik sat in his own chair.

"Uma says says you did excellent on that last job we hired you for. The weapons are developing according to plan." Robyn grinned and nodded. "But," Robyn tensed. "You worked a job for Tarvoth that night too."

"It's not the first time," she frowned. "What's the issue?" Varik leaned back in his chair.

"We sent you in because we didn't want Tarvoth to get her hands on that tech," he explained. "And she got it anyway."

"She paid just as much as you did," Robyn defended.

"Uma isn't happy, Talvra."

"That sounds like a you problem, Varik." she stood up straighter. "I work for lots of groups, that was never something I tried to hide. If you have a problem with that then I'm afraid I can't help you anymore."

"Now, don't be rash," Varik stood slowly from his chair, trying to calm Robyn. "You got your start with us, and Uma is prepared to offer you a very comfortable place here." Robyn grimaced and turned towards the door.

"Pass." she walked back out into the busy room

"No one walks out on the Scavengers, Talvra," he warned, raising his voice.

"I never walked in," she left the area as quickly as she could and returned to her home. She raised her glove and pulled up a holoscreen going over the details of the job she'd just forfeited.

It was slow going. She hated reading, was never any good at it, but she'd never found it important enough to practice, what with everything else going on. It was only a page and a half long but it took her about half an hour to get through, even only reviewing the information she'd forgotten.

 _Legion of Superheroes Earth Tower: Main computer hub - Scanner. Legionnaires on cite: Saturn, Lightning, Brainiac 5._

They were planning to reverse engineer the data to cloak their locations. Sounded like a toy Robyn wouldn't mind having for herself. She looked at the belt over on her work table and grinned.

She would need to take a few things back first.

* * *

 _Present Day_

She didn't want to be out that night, especially because she knew they were out looking for her right that moment. After a bit of planning, however, she was confident that she could get to the transport dock. Well… confident enough.

She broke into a store soon after she'd woken up and took a dark green shirt, a visor, and a lighter green hooded robe. Bright colors had never appealed to her, which is why she picked them. The Legion wouldn't expect her to wear them. She pulled them over her current clothes, planning to ditch them as soon as she was off world. It was an uphill battle, but eventually she was able to pull her long hair into what she hoped resembled a bun and covered it with the hood. That would be a mess to brush out later.

Reluctantly she removed her goggles as well and set them in her bag. The visors pinched her nose uncomfortably as she walked down the streets, and she found herself having to adjust them constantly. She kept her hands in her pockets as often as she could, hiding the fact that she was still wearing her gloves.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Superman and Lightning walk out of a building with concern, or maybe worry, on their faces. She quickly ducked into the nearest store and pretended to admire a soft pink gown near the entrance. It was such a disgustingly bright color to her, and she hoped because it was something Superman knew she hated, that he would ignore how hard her heart was beating. She knew he could hear it, and turned from him slightly when he confirmed her suspicions by looking directly at her. She hid her gloved hands inside the sleeve of the dress and faked a smile at the touch of the fabric she couldn't actually feel.

He turned and the pair flew away, presumably towards the tower. She let out the breath she'd been holding and continued on her way to the transport docks, a little faster than before.

* * *

 _Three Years Ago_

It had taken her two days, but Robyn had completed her belt and prototype anklets. The scavengers had been kind enough to _return_ some of what she'd sold them. She couldn't help the grin at the memory of how easy it had been to get in undetected. Their security was as easy for her to navigate as her own equipment. She peaked out her window. It was finally dark enough. She slid the belt around her waist and it tightened to the perfect size for her hips. The anklets did the same at the top of her boots.

In addition to her new belt and anklets, she had finally finished the glider she had been working on before she even landed on Earth. She tapped her middle finger and thumb together on both gloves and the glider in the corner of the room hummed to life and flew over to her. She opened the window and stepped onto the glider, flying towards the Legion Tower.

Thanks to the Scavengers, she already had a rather updated layout of the towers defenses. She stopped by what looked like a stone pillar by the edge of the courtyard, and placed her gloved hand on it. Pages of code scrolled passed her eyes on the screen of her goggles. Using the interface on her glove, she managed to disable the security field around the tower just long enough for her to duck passed it. Not even enough time for anyone except maybe the coluan to even realize it had gone out. She weaved her way through the security cameras blind spots and landed near the top of the tower.

Energy fields wrapped around her feet and her gloves as she stepped from her glider. She pushed it against the wall with a quiet thud. After a few seconds she had to squint to see it, which meant the camouflage was working. She slowly crawled a few feet to the window and set a small device on the wall next to it. Once again using the interface on her glove she was able to deactivate the defenses long enough to slip inside. She closed the window quietly, and a tiny _beep_ in her ear told her the defenses had reengaged.

The room was massive with a large domed ceiling, and console in the center stretched all the way to the top. She made her way closer to the computer and tapped the ceiling, using the echolocation in her goggles to find the gap in the Scavengers notes. It was closer to the computer than they'd said. She used a small laser in the finger of her right glove to carve out a hole big enough for her to slip through and crawled inside. The hollow space was only a small indent in the area, but big enough for her to fit inside if she crouched. She placed her feet on the small lip of the ceiling and pulled herself in. What she needed was right inside.

So much of what was in this area was outdated, but all the data still passed through so it was easy for her to get what she needed. The coluan had obviously been put in charge of security, and he obviously didn't think to highly of the intelligence of other species. Robyn couldn't necessarily blame him though, she had met far more idiots than geniuses in her life.

After copying the scanner data and the patrol schedule for Legionnaires permanently stationed at the tower, she looked around.

"What won't you miss?" she grinned.

Her bag was satisfyingly heavy by the end of her trip, and she had left a noticeable indent in the 'wall'. She grinned, already taking inventory of what she could take next time. She slid out of the gap again and carefully welded the panel back into place.

* * *

 _Present Day_

"Occupation?" the woman behind the computer asked monotonously.

"Freelance Inventor," Robyn responded, holding up her gloved hand. After a few more questions (Robyn had paid very close attention when they'd been asked to the woman two spaces in front of her, then had taken the next person in line to forge all the required paperwork) the woman nodded and handed her a small chip.

"Have a nice trip, Miss Carvirim." she turned back to her computer. "Next!" Robyn left the customs desk and sat down on a bench in the waiting room.

Her ship would board in three hours.

* * *

 _Three Years Ago_

She was running through the back streets, trying to put on her equipment as she ran, glider compacted and hastily thrown into her bag. The Scavengers had found her home. Her alarm had woken her up, and she'd barely had enough time to grab her things and jump from the window. She had to get out of the city. As she ran through the park she was able to snatch a red robe off of a bench and throw it around herself.

And then she was in the middle of town, holding the robe tight around herself and trying to blend in. She had almost made it to the edge of the city when suddenly she was grabbed by the back of her robe and dragged into a back alley. She'd only been able to put on her goggles, and the rest of her equipment was in the brown bag that was harshly yanked from her shoulder. The robe was left at the edge of the alley.

Pain shot up her legs as she was forced to her knees, arms held behind her back. She glared up at the Scavenger in front of her, pointing a gun at her head.

"No hard feelings miss," the man said. "Varik says it's nothin' personal." Robyn pulled against the arms holding her back, but without her equipment they were too strong to get away from. They pulled her arms back farther and she let out a small cry of pain. The man in front of her grinned.

Suddenly a long green arm punched him in the face and the shot hit the wall behind her. The men let her go and she fell forward, reaching for her bag. She turned around and saw several scavengers running at her through the alley.

"Come on!" a familiar voice shouted as someone grabbed her hand. She was suddenly lift off the ground and carried through the back streets of the city. Suddenly she was pulled into a tight alley.

"I can walk you kn-!" a hand was placed over her mouth and she finally looked down to see who her new captor was. She saw Brainiac 5 in front of her, staring out into the alley as the Scavengers ran passed.

" _Heartbeat irregularity,"_ her goggles announced. She shook her head to free her mouth.

"When they say sweep a girl off her feet," she whispered. "They don't mean literally."

"They dragged you into an alley," Brainiac 5 squinted up at her.

" _You_ dragged me into an alley," he opened his mouth to argue but closed it with a pout.

"I was trying to help you," She only smirked in responce. "What did they want with you anyway?" Robyn blinked in confusion. He didn't recognize her? You'd think the goggles would jog his memory a bit. She looked at him. Actually looked at him. His hair had gotten longer, it just reached his chin. He'd gotten taller, but so had she. He was a full head shorter than her. She looked down at her bag.

"I'm an inventor," not technically a lie. "I refused to sell them parts. Guess I pissed off the wrong person." also not a lie. Brainiac 5 nodded and looked out into the alley before stepping out, gesturing for her to do the same.

"We can protect you at the tower," he said. "We're close to uncovering the Scavengers base. They wouldn't bother you then." Robyn shook her head.

"I just need to leave the city," she explained. "They're most influential here. They won't follow me." she turned to leave, holding her bag close to her chest. A hand on her arm made her turn around. He was looking up at her, eyes squinted, almost pouting. The voice in her head that was usually screaming at her to run was quiet for the first time in years.

"Have we met before?" he tilted his head. "You look incredibly familiar."

"I don't know," her lips twitched in an almost smile. Maybe he'd wanted to remember. But it _had_ been two years. "I think I'd remember you." Not a lie. He nodded and let go of her arm. Her goggles started to point things out again. How his hair moved in the breeze now that it was longer, how he stood up straighter, smiled more. Her goggles decided it was important to file six different pictures of his smile. With a quiet sigh she turned off the database display as she had during her audition. She'd have to remember to keep that off around him if they ever met again.

"If you insist on leaving, then at least let me see you out of the city." He held his hand out to her again. She looked at him, holding onto her bag almost defensively. A second pair of eyes wouldn't be a bad idea.. "Alright," she accepted his hand, but immediately recoiled as what felt like electricity ran up her arm.

"Are you alright?" he took a step forward. She looked down at her hand.

"Yes," she said quietly. "Yes I'm fine. Just a shock. Let's go." he nodded and took her hand.

* * *

 _Present Day_

"Now boarding sector fifteen bound flight three," Robyn stood and joined the line, robe pulled tightly around herself. Her hood was up and she kept her gloved hands deep in her pockets until she would need to give the man at the terminal her ticket.

"Excuse me, sir," she froze when she heard Saturn's voice. Without moving she looked over and saw the blonde woman speaking to a man a few rows over. "We're looking for our friend." a holographic image of Robyn appeared above Saturn's ring. "Have you seen her?" the man shook his head. Robyn slowly turned and saw Lightning, Brainiac 5, and Bounce all doing the same throughout the room.

"I'm sorry, ma'am?" Superman's voice said from behind her. Not close enough to be directed at her. Before her heartbeat gave her away she stepped out of the line and planned the quickest route to the bathroom.

"Miss?" Lightning's voice said as a hand was placed on her shoulder. She quickly raised her gloved hand and covered his on her shoulder, sending a large burst of energy through his body, enough to send him to the floor.

"Lightning!" Saturn shouted. Robyn dashed to the bathroom, throwing the cloak at Superman as he flew up to her, and slammed the door, attaching a small device to the surface. A green field covered the wall and door. Someone started banging on it, Superman she assumed, and the field started to crack. The visors shattered against the floor as she pulled her goggles over her eyes. She pushed past the few people in the room, opened the window at the end, and stepped up onto the windowsill. It was only a few stories to the next roof over, she could easily make it, but she hesitated when she remembered she didn't have her glider. The door smashed open and she glanced behind her to see the Legionaries piling into the room.

"Robyn, wait," Superman started to move towards her, slowly, so as not to frighten her. His mistake. She leapt from the window. She would never be able to outrun Superman, she knew that, but if she threw enough shit in his way she may be able to lose him. She tossed another device, same as before, at the window, and another green wall covered the side of the building. She turned and activated the energy fields around her gloves and boots, and landed on the roof with a thud.

She ran and was able to jump off the roof just as Superman broke through the field. She shot a cable into the wall and quickly scanned for an open window as she did. Once she found one, she pulled herself inside and threw the cable further to make it look like she had continued swinging. She activated her full mask with a tap on her goggles and snapped her fingers to activate a thin, green haze surrounded her entire body. Soundproofing. Another tap to her goggles and a display told her that the mental shield was functioning. She pressed herself tight against the wall and waited.

They flew down into the alley and hovered.

"Damnit!" Lightning cursed. "At least we got her before she got on the ship."

"She's trying to leave Earth." Something about the way Brainy's voice cracked sent a sharp pain through her chest. She slowly started to make her way through the, thankfully empty, room.

"We're going to find her," Saturn said, putting an arm around his shoulders. The door was only slightly open, but enough for her to squeeze through… she hoped. Her equipment would only absorb sounds _she_ made.

She was nearly half way through when her shoulder bumped the door. Before Superman's head had even finished turning she was running down the hall. There was another window at the end. Closed. She didn't have time. She curled into a ball and threw herself at it. Glass fell around her as she pushed off the ground, giving herself enough momentum to duck into the next building, this one abandoned, before they got through the window.. But she didn't try hiding again, they'd expect it now. She ran from the building through several alleys she hadn't been through in years, even ran passed the old housing unit she used to live in. She ran until she was shaking and her legs were on the verge of giving out, and then kept running.

" _Warning: Energy level low. Equipment failure imminent."_ her goggles warned.

"Shit." she deactivated her soundproofing. She couldn't afford to waste battery life. She just had to hope she was far enough away. Just as she was about to exit the building, Saturn dropped in front of the doorway. Before Robyn could even blink Saturn's eyes started glowing. Robyn had never really understood Saturn's power when it came to combat. A few illusions, a thought blast. But until now she'd never even understood what a thought blast was let alone how it worked. She would have been happy to have lived her whole life without knowing. It felt like someone was driving a nail through her skull, like thousands of people were screaming all at once. After the pain faded, she sat up, rubbed her head, and looked around. The Legionnaires had backed her into a corner.

"I'm sorry, Robyn," Saturn said. "You didn't give me any choice." Robyn could feel herself shaking.

"What are you waiting for then?" she held Saturn's gaze. "Go on and arrest me."

"Robyn, we're your friends," Superman took a step forward. Robyn actually laughed as she stood to her feet. She was still dizzy from the thought blast, the echoes of a nameless noise still bouncing around her head, and leaned against the wall to steady herself.

"You're not my friends," she spat at them. "The only reason you didn't hand me over to the Science Police the moment you caught me is because you needed my help. You only kept me around because you owed me a favor." the tremor in her voice betrayed the calm she was presenting. "At best you're using me, and at worst you pity me."

"Robyn, it's not pity." Lightning looked at her.

"We care about you, Robyn," Saturn sounded cautious, afraid to set Robyn off.

* * *

" _I care for you, show some respect, Ila!"_

* * *

His voice whipped through her mind.

"You know what happened the last time someone _cared_ about me?" her voice was too calm. She pulled her goggles down around her neck and looked at the legion with eyes that weren't hers. Their faces shifted from surprise to confusion. She tugged down the high neck of her shirt, revealing a small metal band around her throat. She pushed a button on either side of the device and the digital mask melted away, revealing three long scars across her face. One from her forehead, through her left eyebrow, to her cheek, another across her nose, and the third through the right of her lips. "Everyone who _cared_ either died or lied, and none of you will be any different."

"Robyn," Brainy almost whispered.

"Those weren't there when we-" Lightning hesitated.

"When you caught me?" Robyn snapped, pulling her goggles back over her eyes, scars melting back into smooth skin. .

"Robyn," Saturn took a step forward. Robyn took one back. "Who did this?"

"Who do you think." her voice was almost too quiet to hear.

"The man you're running from," Superman said instead of asked. Robyn nodded at him and swallowed.

"Whenever I use my powers," Robyn reached up to the back of her neck. "My location is sent to him."

"If he was coming for you," Saturn was almost close enough to touch. "Wouldn't he have come already?"

"If he knows where you are, then he knows who you're with," Lightning crossed his arms. "And he knows we'll kick him into the forty first century if he comes within five sectors of you." she looked down, and a few minutes of silence passed. She knew they meant it. And that was almost reason enough to run again.

"Please," she looked up and saw Brainy. That sharp pain ran through her chest again. She looked at the others and in her mind she saw him and his _pets_ cutting through them like wet paper. If she left, he would start his search here. If she left and used her powers again, he would still come here. She'd spent too much time with them.

It had been years since she'd wanted to protect anyone, and she hadn't been strong enough then. She hadn't even been able to protect herself.

They could hurt her.

He could hurt her.

He could hurt them.

There was nothing she could do to stop it now.

"Okay," she whispered.

Like hell she wasn't going to try though.

* * *

 _A Little Less Than a Year Ago_

"The Five are fresh out of their cells and headed right for you," the smuggler laughed. "And you wanna waste your precious time in here interrogating me." Lightning glared at the man. "I reckon you've got, what, a day now before they make it to Earth?"

"Answer the question," Lightning snapped. "How did your men get the reactor?"

"For the millionth time, we didn't!"

"It was surrounded by twenty four hour guards, eighteen cameras, and the most state of the art security," Lightning explained. "You're telling me it just disappeared?"

"No, you idiot," the man rolled his eyes. "I'm just saying it wasn't us!"

"Then who was it?"

"Wouldn't matter if I told you," he laughed. "You'd never get her."

"There is no pattern my systems can't detect," Brainiac 5 argued. "That's how we found you."

"That's the thing, isn't it?" he grinned. "She doesn't have one. She takes what she wants, when she wants it, don't matter where. Hell, she's taken from this tower more times than we've even considered!"

"She- what?" Brainiac wasn't convinced. "Impossible, my defenses are-"

"Doesn't matter, mate," he laughed. "She was only thirteen when we hired her the first time, if that tells you anything. Truly worthy of her title, for sure."

"For crying out loud," Lightning sighed before turning back to the man. "Who?"

"The Queen," he laughed. "Boss hates when we call her that."

"I'm getting really sick of your games," Lightning leaned in. "What Queen?"

"The Queen of Thieves?" Brainiac tilted his head. "It's actually just one person?"

"Yeah it's just one person. She stopped selling years ago. I wouldn't even be telling you if I hadn't seen her myself." he squinted, as if thinking. "You know, might be worth your day to go looking for her," he leaned back casually. "I've heard the only one she hates more than my people is the Empress, couldn't tell you why though."

"Why tell us this?" Brainiac squinted at him.

"If she's off the streets than that means more work for my boys," he grinned. "Purely selfish reasons, I promise."

"Lightning, you continue," Brainiac moved to leave the room. "I have some research to do." Lightning nodded and Brainy left the room. He walked through the halls to his main computer and sat down.

"C.O.M.P.U.T.O. find every article that mentions The Queen of Thieves."

* * *

 **Whew! Bulk update done! Again, I am so sorry about the wait, but I hope you enjoyed these chapters c:**

 **good/bad news: this chapter marked the halfway point for Queen of Thieves. I am planning on their being 8 more chapters. I'm still working on the plot outline for the next book, but I plan on having it all written before uploading it. So there is still loads more content coming, don't worry c:**

 **Really quick, I have added my social media info to my bio on here. If any of you are interested in seeing non-fanfic related content from me (Lets be real its just pics of my cat but I try to be creative sometimes) feel free to give it a look. if enough of you hop on over there I will most likely start posting updates on how new chapters are coming along, and warnings when I'm about to drop new chapters, OC design for the next part of this story, stuff like that c:  
**

 **If you're just here for the fanfiction, that's cool too c: I still love and appreciate all of you for all the support you've given this story. I'm just trying to grow my audience.**

 **Let me know what you guys think about me only doing bulk updates from here on out. In terms of editing I feel like these chapters flow a lot more than others because they were all edited at the same time, let me know if you guys agree.**

 **Anyway, I love you all, and I'll try to have the next chapter up soon.**

 **Love you guys,**

 **~C.J. (Nathan)**


	13. 9- Child's Play

_Everything was dark. The only sound she could hear was the roaring of her own blood in her ears. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't move, or at least not on her own. She could feel her body moving, but that wasn't her. It hurt. Everything hurt. Every breath, every step, every second hurt more than the last. Her body ached, her blood burned, her head filled with violent echoes of almost sounds. She remembered this pain._

 _Suddenly it was gone and her senses came rushing back to her in one large wave. She fell to her knees, shaking, numb, and stared in horror at the familiar bodies in front of her. The cold feeling of something that was almost metal in her hands finally registered, and she looked down to see her fingers wrapped around a thin green neck._

A painful spark against her bare shoulder chased the image from her mind. Robyn hadn't been able to rid herself of the nightmare since Quavermast. She had tried to keep herself busy, but every now and then it would claw its way back to the surface. Part of her was almost grateful for the vision. It reminded her what he had made her do, why she'd run, and what she was fighting for. It wasn't just her life now.

Robyn returned to the task in front of her with a small noise that may have been a sigh. Over the last few months she and Brainy had been slowly building a bigger room for all the maintenance controls like she'd asked, and they were finally starting to near the end. She was hung upside down from a large tube running close to the ceiling as she connected some wires within the wall. The door _hissed_ behind her. She didn't need to look to know who it was. She was one of only two people who ever came in here.

"Robyn," she hadn't been expecting a conversation though. She craned her neck to look behind her, pulling her long dark hair out of the way so she could see Brainy. He wasn't looking at her. He hadn't really since she'd returned to the tower.

Things had been a bit tense between them. Of everyone in the tower, she usually found him the easiest to get along with, or at the very least one the most fun to pick on (second only to Sir Zapsalot himself). Something was different between them now though. Everyone had been fluctuating between very understanding and very cold towards her, and she'd gotten used to it just as things started to go back to normal. But things were still off between her and Brainy, She noticed that he was standing in a way that made him seem smaller than he was. His feet together, arms close to his side, and slouched slightly.

"What's up, Brainy?" she decided to smile. "Aside from me, of course." he either hadn't noticed her attempt at lightening the mood or it simply hadn't worked.

"Can we talk?" he finally met her eyes, if only for a moment. Her smile flickered and she nodded before kicking her legs out and falling from the tube. She turned and landed in a crouch on the ground with a soft _thunk._

"What's on your mind?" she crossed her arms and looked down at him. He didn't say anything, just looked at her, or rather her goggles, almost squinting. His silence was starting to make her a little concerned. "Brainy?" she prompted.

"Can you take your goggles off?" okay, that was unexpected, but she nodded and pulled them down to rest against her chest. The two of them sat there for a moment, Robyn looking down at him curiously, and him staring up at her, observing. The silence wasn't uncomfortable, but Robyn would be lying if she said her heartbeat hadn't speed up. "That's not really what they look like, its it?" he asked. She couldn't help but grin and laugh to herself. A sad smile crossed her face at the underlying hint of hurt in his voice.

"Finally see it, huh?"

"I'm surprised I didn't sooner." he nodded, disappointment flashing across his face for a moment, as if he'd been hoping he was wrong. "I've developed enough personal image inducers. I should have noticed."

"It was my fathers, actually," she reached up to touch the device around her neck through the fabric of her shirt. "I'd never touched it before though, took me some time to figure out. You think I'm good with tech, you should have seen him." she smiled fondly at the memory.

"It's around your hair too," he observed. "I can see it now. After everything, you're still hiding." Robyn pulled her goggles of over her head, giving herself a moment without the straps pulling against her hair before putting them back on..

"I have my reasons," she answered the question he hadn't asked.

"You have friends." his hands clenched into fists at his sides. "We've told you time and time again we want to protect you!"

"Well forgive me for wanting to return the favor." she raised an eyebrow at him. Tension in the room was growing, but Robyn wasn't angry at him. She didn't want to be angry at him. She'd thought she was doing the right thing, so she wasn't sorry she'd left. But in doing so she'd hurt everyone, and she did feel sorry about that. She hesitated before she spoke again, looking down at the goggles rather than Brainy. "His name is Damien. I hid anything he could recognize me by. I'm not quite this subtle." she returned her gaze to the younger boy and gestured to her face.

"So what if he recognized you," Brainy raised his voice. "You have us! We can protect you! You were safe, so why did you run?"

"Brainy," she squinted down at him. None of the others had been this upset. "Why are you-?"

"You can't just make us care about you and leave! What if something had happened to you? We didn't know where you were, we-!"

"I've been running since I was ten, Brainy," she interrupted. She took a step towards him and he took a step back, surprise flashing across his face again for only a second before he was glaring at her again. "If you think you're the first people I've come to then you really aren't as smart as you think you are." she took another step forward as his back hit the wall. "I ran because I know what he does to people who stand in his way!"

* * *

 _He looked up at her, and she looked down at him, screaming, telling him she was sorry. But instead of sound, she felt herself grin._

* * *

"Then why come to us at all?!" he glared up at her.

"Because I didn't care about you then!" her fist hit the wall next to his head, causing him to flinch. She finally realized how close they were. She could feel his breath on her face. _So he does breathe_ , she thought to herself, answering a question she didn't even know she had. She quickly met his eyes and took a step back.

 _A pool of crimson was the last thing she saw before she ran, shaking and crying. She wished she'd looked back._

"If you knew what was good for you, you would have let me leave. You never would have let me in." she yanked her goggles back over her eyes, ignoring how it yanked her hair, and turned to go back to what she had been working on, hearing his footsteps start to walk away from her. Robyn was immediately furious with herself. She hadn't meant to get so angry. It wasn't his fault he didn't know these things about her. She opened her mouth to say something, but he beat her to it. "If you think you're the first person to leave," his voice was quiet, almost as if he didn't want her to hear him. "Then you really aren't as smart as you think you are." she felt her heart drop and turned to face him.

"What do you-" he was at the door, "Brainy." the door slid open and he stepped into the hall. "Wait!" she followed him out and grabbed his elbow, spinning him around to look at her. "What do you mean?" he didn't answer and looked away from her. "Brainy," her voice was softer than she'd ever heard it. She put her hands on his shoulders and lowered herself so they were eye level. "Who left?" he finally looked at her.

"My mother," he whispered. For a moment she was sure she must have heard him wrong.

"She- What…?" it was stupid when she finally thought about it. She knew what sort of awful things people could do. She'd realized parents were no exception with Dr. Lando, but part of her had still hoped most people loved their kids. Apparently she was wrong.

All it took was a moment and she was full of rage. How dare she? This boy was kind and intelligent and wonderful! There was no way he could have done anything to hurt her, so why would she-?

A quiet sniff pulled her from her thoughts and she noticed Brainy trembling slightly. A memory of her mother hugging her while she cried came to mind, and she gently pulled the younger boy to her, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. He was shaking as his hands wrapped around her waist, clinging to the back of her shirt. "I'm so sorry… I didn't…. I never meant to hurt you like that… I just wanted to keep you safe…" She leaned against the wall, letting him rest on her for a minute, making sure he knew she wasn't going anywhere. Without thinking, her hand reached up to move his hair out of his face. Her hand lingered for a moment before returning to rub small circles into his shoulder.

He pulled away from her suddenly, hand darting up to his eyes as a few tears slid down his face.

"Are you okay?" she asked. He didn't respond, he just looked at his hand in amazement.

"This has never happened before." that caught her off guard.

"You've never cried?" he shook his head and looked away, as if embarrassed, and tried to take a step away from her. .. She wasn't sure why, but she didn't let go. Instead she just looked at him. A small twitch of her fingers and her goggles started to take notes and pictures, filing them away. The way his lip stuck out when he was curious, how his hair stood up a bit wildly by his forehead from where he'd been leaning on her, and how his eyes looked while he squinted were all things her goggles decided were very important. She gave a quiet sigh.

"What is it?" he asked. She turned off the display.

"Just testing something," she replied. He looked at her expectantly, but when it was obvious that was all the explanation he was going to get he started to pull away again. Robyn tightened her grip on his arm just a bit. "Are you okay?" she asked again. He nodded.

"I suppose I never realized how that had actually effected me," he explained. Robyn opened her mouth to speak but a quiet beeping from her ring interrupted her. She let go of Brainy, but kept one hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah?" she sighed into it.

"Hey," Triplicates forcefully cheery voice responded, shouting over a loud noise. "When you're done in the cruiser can you come to the lounge? There's this loud ringing and we can't find it!" Robyn breathed out a small laugh.

"Yeah, I'll be right there." a quiet click told her Triplicate had disconnected. She turned back to Brainy who was looking away with his arms crossed.. She gave a small squeeze to his shoulder before dropping it.. "Are we good…?" he nodded.

"I'm going into the city with Superman soon," he looked up at her, changing the subject. She nodded and took a step down the hall, but Brainy quickly grabbed her hand. He must not have realized he did, because he immediately tried to let go, but she quickly held it tightly in her own.  
"I'll be here when you get back." She gave him a reassuring smile when he looked at her. "Promise." he nodded and let go of her hand.

Robyn left the cruiser and stopped in the first hallway just outside the docking bay, leaning against the wall. The back of her head thumped against the cold metal as a shaky breath echoed around her. Her heart was pounding so hard it hurt. Her head was spinning and she slid down to the floor before she fell.. She knew this feeling well. Guilt. She raised a trembling hand to her chest and took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself down.

"Fuck…" She'd hurt him. She'd left to protect them, to protect him, and she'd hurt him so much more than she'd thought. She always regretted staying with _him_ for as long as she had. Part of her regretted not leaving the Legion sooner, and a bigger, louder part of her just regretted leaving. It was all too confusing and Robyn decided to leave it for a time when she was slightly less busy. She took another deep breath and pulled herself to her feet. It was done. All she could do now was find a way to make it up to him. To all of them. , She shook her head to clear her thoughts and continued towards the lounge.

It didn't take long for her to notice the ringing and it only got louder and more obnoxious the closer she got to the lounge.

"What the hell did you do?" she shouted as she walked inside, covering her ears with her hands.

"Nothing!" all three triplets shouted at the same time. Saturn, Phantom, and Lightning were desperately flying around the room covering their ears, trying to find the source of the noise. Robyn moved her hand long enough to switch on the scanner in her goggles. She quickly started searching the room for the loudest area and her eyes landed on a familiar panel in the ceiling.

She flew up to it and started to cut it open, far clumsier than she ever had before. It fell to the floor and she flew inside. The noise was deafening, echoing around the small tunnel. The familiar 'room' looked the same as how she'd left it the last time, except there was smoke wafting up from a small panel. She flew up and tugged it away from the wall. One of the chords was shot. This area was too outdated, and she'd taken too much from it over the years, it had only been a matter of time before the buildings security systems noticed something was wrong. She cut another chord from the wall where it wouldn't be missed and replaced the broken part. The noise started to flicker before finally shutting off. She sighed loudly and floated out of the ceiling where she found the others hovering just above the floor staring at her.

"What?" she shrugged.

"Is that where you-" Phantom trailed off, pointing at the whole in the ceiling.

"Yes," Robyn answered, unable to hide a proud grin. "It's the most outdated section of the tower, quite easy to get to actually." she floated down to the floor and picked up the missing panel. Robyn couldn't help but flinch after she welded it back into place. She'd been in such a hurry to get it off that it didn't look nearly as subtle as it had before and even pointed out the old, thin lines she'd made over the years. Brainy would definitely notice it now.

"Thanks," Saturn stared at the spot in the ceiling as Robyn floated down. "I think." Robyn grinned and flew backwards into the hall with an overdramatic bow before making her way back towards the cruiser. .

A few minutes passed, s had only just reentered the docking bay, when a familiar feeling had her falling to her knees. Her hands hit the ground to break her fall as a sickening dizziness ran through her head. It felt like she was being sucked out into space. All the air around her was gone, and she felt a crushing weight on her chest. A numb tingling sensation ran through her as her body as it adjusted to an energy she hadn't felt in over a decade. She flew back to the lounge as fast as her flight ring would allow.

"Would you please hold still!" She heard Saturn shout. "I'm trying to run a mind probe so we can figure out where you come from!"

"Why do you want to know about that place?" said an unfamiliar voice. It sounded younger, and with a thick lisp. "It'th nothing but ruleth, ruleth, ruleth." Robyn turned the corner and saw a young boy in an orange and red outfit flying around the room. But what she found herself staring at was the all to distinct style of hat on his head. Long and pointed with an orb set on the forehead. "I'm having much more fun here." he snapped his fingers with a wide grin and Saturn's earrings grew to the size of her torso, causing her to fall to the floor. The energy in the room warped and settled, and Robyn felt her entire body shiver. Once it had settled down again she found herself leaning against the doorframe.

"No," she took a step back.

"Come here!" Superman shouted as he ran at the boy. He snapped again and Supermans cape wrapped around him and tied itself into a big bow behind him, making him to crash into the floor next to Saturn.

"Next time you want to bring home a stray," Saturn groaned to Superman. "Try a puppy." The boy laughed and looked around the room. His eyes found Robyn and a look of confusion spread across his face. It only took him a second to realize and a large grin spread across his face.

"No way!" He flew at her and, before she had a chance to run, grabbed her arm and suddenly the two of them were all the way on the roof of the building. Robyn swore she heard someone call her name, but she was too busy trying to keep her lunch down to try and remember. "You got away too?" the boy was elated. "That's awethome! Come on, let's play!" Robyn was still dizzy from being so close to him and took a few steps back. "Come oooooon!" he whined and started to cast a spell.

"No!"

* * *

 _ **Embedded tracker activated. Location: New Metropolis, Earth- The Milky Way Galaxy.**_

* * *

Whatever spell the boy was casting fizzled as he flew back a few feet. He shook his head and stared at her as her hand flew up to the back of her neck. His eyes widened when he realized.

"You-... You're the half blood." Robyn's head snapped up and her heart started racing.

"Don't," she whispered. "Please don't tell anyone. I-"

"No, no, no!" he flew up to her with a huge grin. "I've always thought you were super cool! The rules don't work on you! You're so lucky!"

"Lucky..?" she blinked "I'm not lucky," she thankful that her goggles hid her glare, she really didn't want to be on this kids bad side. "Trust me. If there's one thing I'm not, it's lucky." he tilted his head and looked up at her confused.

"So… you don't use your magic?"

"No," she snapped. "Just…" she took a deep breath. "Please don't tell the others." he snapped his fingers and a zipper closed over his lips before popping out of existence. "Thank you." he held out his hand to her.

"My name's Zyx!" it took her a minute to make sure she'd heard him correctly through his lisp before she hesitantly took his hand. Just as she started to open her mouth they were suddenly back in the lounge. She blinked and stumbled back, hand reaching out to brace herself against the wall. This was going to take a bit of time to get used to.

"Robyn!" Brainy as the two of them re-appeared in front of everyone. It must have been him who called out to her last time. He turned to Zyx and glared. "Why did you take her?"

Zyx shrugged and hummed in response. "She looked fun." Robyn sighed in relief that Zyx was keeping his word and turned to Brainy. He looked like he was going to argue, but quickly glanced at Robyn and shut his mouth with a frustrated sigh.

"My mother said he's a Zaroxian," Phantom got everyone's attention as she walked into the room. Zyx and Robyn both spun to look at her. She was rubbing the sides of her head like she had a headache. "She said it's pointless to try and get ahold of them." Zyx cheered and teleported out of the room. Robyn relaxed her shoulders.

Phantom, Saturn, Brainy, Superman, and Robyn all looked at each other, not quite sure whether to he happy that he was gone or very concerned. Robyn quickly settled on concerned.

"Hey!" Lightnings voice came from around the corner barely a minute later. Robyn walked sluggishly into the next room and peeked in to see a hologram of the two lizard like monsters Drax had brought with him what felt like forever ago. "Remember Comet and Cupid?" Lightning crossed his arms, looking up at the hologram as if the problem would be fixed if he scowled hard enough.

"Unfortunately." Robyn stood next to him, joining the older boy in his scowling quest.

"Well it looks like their cages at the New Metropolis Zoo just malfunctioned."

"It took the Science Police a week to catch them!" Phantom groaned.

"Well then it's time for the big Legion of Superheroes roundup!" Bounce was practically _bouncing_ in excitement. "Yeeeee-haw!" Robyn mentally slapped herself when she recognized the pun.

"I work with children," she muttered to herself as Zyx popped into the room.

"Cool!" He exclaimed, rather loudly, next to Lightning's ear, causing the other to wince. "Let's go!"

"Sorry kid," Lightning's irritation was bleeding out into his words. "You just stay out of trouble and let us handle this." Robyn followed after Lightning, chancing a glance at Zyx over her shoulder. He was glaring at Lightning for only a moment before he suddenly vanished.

It didn't take the group long to find Comet and Cupid, all they had to do was follow the shouting, crashes, and explosions. The creatures turned in two different directions, and the group split to follow them.

"Robyn!" Brainy called after her as she started to follow Lightning and Phantom. "I'm going to fix the barrier."

"You know," she chuckled as she flew up to him. "If you need my help you can just ask." He pouted.

"I am perfectly capable of handling it on my own," he started to fly off. "I was merely letting you know where I was going."

"Mm hmm." the pair flew off towards the creatures enclosure at the Zoo. Once they arrived Brainy landed in front of the main console on the ground and began working. Robyn flew up to the top of the enclosure and rest her glove against the metal. After a few seconds several screens began to appear on the lenses of her goggles.

"What the-?" she mumbled to herself.

"Robyn?" Brainy's voice came through her ring.

"I'm seeing it too." she removed her hands, causing the data across her lenses to disappear, and flew back down to Brainy.

"Were you two able to fix the barriers?" Superman's face appeared on one of the holo-screens Brainy had pulled up as she landed next to him.

"That's just the thing," Brainy sounded like he was still thinking, squinting at the screens in front of him . "They're not broken. According to my diagnostics they work fine."

"So then how did they get loose?" Lightnings voice jumped in. Robyn heard a quiet _poof_ coming from wherever Lightning was.

"Who cares?" Zyx cheery voice was muffled. "This is fun!"

"Wait!" Robyn could practically hear the glare on Lightning's face. "Did you let these things out?"

"Maybe," Zyx chuckled. Robyn groaned quietly to herself.

"You need to put them back, right now!" Lightning shouted.

"Oki dok," Zyx laughed. "This is a job for Super-Zyx!" Lightning's communicator finally cut out as Superman flew one of the creatures, frozen in ice, back into the enclosure. Robyn flew up and looked around for Lightning, assuming Zyx was still close to wherever he was. She finally spotted them at the other end of the zoo and flew over as quickly as possible.

"Real funny kid!" She heard Lightning shout at Zyx, who was riding on the back of the remaining creature while wearing a Superman suit. "Now quit fooling around an-!" The creature slammed into his side, sending him tumbling to the ground. Zyx turned the creature around, as if he was going to charge back at Lightning.

"Sleep!" Saturn shouted as she flew down next to Lightning. Her eyes started to glow and the creature immediately fell onto its side, fast asleep.

Superman flew down and scooped up Zyx in one arm and the snoring creature in the other, flying them both to the enclosure. Zyx was laughing the whole time with his arm outstretched like Superman. Robyn followed them, feeling a small pit settle in her stomach. Once Superman and Zyx had flown back out of the enclosure, Brainy reactivated the shields.

"That was wicked awesome!" Zyx cheered. "Let's do it again!" Superman moved the kid in his arms so they were facing each other.

"Zyx I get you want to help, but-"

"Listen up you little twerp!" Lightning stormed up to the group. Robyn was immediately very nervous. "You could have got someone hurt!"

"Lightning," Phantom put her hand on his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. He shrugged her off.

"If he can't follow the rules, its time for him to go home!" Lightning glared at Phantom.

"No!" Zyx shouted, wiggling free from Superman's grasp. "Never! You can't make me!" Zyx flew away a few feet and zapped a bright purple light towards Lightning, causing Robyn to wince. When she opened her eyes she noticed a small rat where Lightning had been only seconds before.

"Well shit," she muttered to herself, feeling the energy around her start to shift again as Zyx started to fly higher.

"No more rules!" Zyx was screaming now. "I hate rules!" A small _poof_ and Zyx had turned himself into a cat. He pounced at Lightning and actually caught the now rodent in his mouth. Superman picked Zyx up as electricity started to shoot out around his mouth. Zyx opened his mouth with a loud screech and turned back to normal as Lightning fell and started to run away. The kid started shooting him with more zaps of light. Bounce inflated and hopped between the two of them.

"Break it up you two!" In response Zyx shot another light that hit Bounce, Lightning, and Phantom. Bounce turned to goo (which made Robyn gag a little), and stuck the three of them to the wall.

"Okay Zyx, fun's over," Superman tried to stay calm. "Change them back."

"No," he turned and pointed at Superman. "All you're gonna do is send me home! And I don't wanna go home! I wanna stay here and play some more!" The kid flew off away from the group and Robyn felt the pit in her stomach grow as she realized how out of hand this all had gotten.

Zyx was flying around, making random animals appear and cackling.

"Transforming matter has serious molecular consequences!" Brainy shouted up at him. "It has to end!" He extended his arms to try and grab Zyx. They wrapped around the kid and, without even struggling, another flash of light had turned Brainy's hands into snakes.

"It's called magic," Zyx said, annoyed that the android still didn't understand. The snakes turned around and started to chase Brainy. His eyes widened and with a rather undignified yelp (that Robyn would almost definitely tease him about later) he hopped over his own arms and ran away. If Robyn didn't know how bad this could get she would have been laughing hysterically. Superman flew over, grabbing the snakes close to the head and holding them on the ground.

"This isn't what superheros do, Zyx!" Superman was still trying to reason with him.

"Who wants to be a crummy superhero?" Zyx waved off Superman's comment. "It'd be much more fun to be a super villain!" Dark clouds filled the sky as Zyx altered his appearance once more, this time to a dark red outfit and a dark black and green cape. Robyn felt a headache start to sting behind her eyes. Zyx made several roses appear around him and threw them at Superman. Robyn swore her heart stop when she heard a cry of pain from Superman as several thorns scratched him. She flew up to him, helping him back to his feet, and saw two long cuts along his arm and chest.

"How did you-? That actually hurt me." He sounded amazed bordering on terrified. Robyn turned to Zyx with wide eyes. Magic hurt Superman? She had thrown him across the room with her magic before, but she just assumed that was because she'd caught him off guard. They should have been much more afraid of this kid.

"Then this oughta really hurt!" One of the roses suddenly grew to bigger than both Robyn and Superman combined and bit Superman with a large, fanged mouth. Zyx appeared next to Superman and laughed. "Not feeling so _super_ now, are you?" Robyn saw Saturn flying towards Zyx, and took the break from Zyx's attention to fly over to Brainy, shooting a cord around his arms… Snakes… Snarms? She shot a cord at the snakes and landed, wrapping her end around her arm a few times and pulling them away from Brainy, who promptly fell over on his ass, looking exhausted after only a few minutes of dealing with his new friends. They pulled against the cord, hissing and snapping at her. Several alarms started blaring to her side, and she turned to see Saturn surrounded by dozens of flying alarm clocks, holding her hands over her ears and trying to outrun them.

Suddenly she was yanked violently up into the air. Her grip had loosened and the snakes had taken the opportunity to whip it in a way that sent her flying a good fifty feet across the plaza. She hit the ground and rolled away.

"Awe fuck that's gonna hurt tomorrow," she groaned as she rolled onto her side, ignoring the sting of several new cuts across her arms.

"I was getting bored with you guys anyway." She heard Zyx sigh as she pulled herself off the ground.

"But you!" Zyx called out to Robyn. Her eyes snapped up to see him grinning down at her. "I haven't had _any_ fun with you yet! You're gonna be my sidekick!" Robyn blinked and they were nearly half way across town, and Robyn had that familiar dizzy feeling floating around her head. "Let's play a new game." He turned to her and there was a quiet humming in her ears as all of her equipment was shut off.

"What are you-?" She noticed the hair that had fallen in front of her goggles fade from dark black to an almost silver grey as her personal image inducers were shut down.

"Now you have to play along!" Zyx cackled and started to grow to the size of the tallest building near them. He reached down and picked her up, holding her in his fist. Robyn struggled against him as he ran threw the city, smashing through buildings, laughing like a mad man the entire time.

"The only thing more fun than getting new toys, is breaking new toys!" He shouted. Robyn was using her verbal commands as quietly as she could, as her arms were currently pinned uncomfortably close to her sides, desperately trying to get her equipment to turn back on.

"If you're going to play," he looked at her. "You gotta play by my rules! Magic only!"

"I told you, I can't!" She glared at him through her goggles.

"Not my problem." He shrugged as he kicked another building.

There was a loud _thwack_ and Zyx he fell back, releasing his hold on Robyn and sending her flying into the air. She tried to get her equipment back on but it seemed Zyx's spell was still active.

"Shit, shit, shit!" She looked down at the rapidly approaching ground. Her eyes closed instinctively, her heart almost screaming in her chest. Just as she started to feel her own energy start to surround her, she felt arms under her back and knees. Her eyes snapped open and her hand shot out, gripping the shoulder of whoever had caught her.

"It's alright," Brainy looked down at her, hovering with her as Superman started fighting Zyx.

"Brainy?" she stared at him for a moment, feeling herself calm down. He had a tendency to do that to her. It had been so long since she'd been in a situation without her equipment. She hated relying on her powers, she'd already used them so many times, it was-

"Robyn," she didn't notice she was sitting until Brainy kneeled in front of her, a hand on each of her shoulders. "You're okay." She finally noticed his arms, which were definitely not snakes any more.

"Your arms, they're-"

"Whatever Zyx is doing, it appears he has a limited concentration of it." Robyn nodded in response and looked over to see Zyx about to step on a downed Superman.

"Superman!" She turned from Brainy and reached out to him as Saturn flew down, barely pulling him out of the way in time. She let out a sigh of relief and turned back to Brainy, who had a weird look on his face, almost like a kicked puppy.

"How do you like it now, puny hero?" Zyx taunted. "Not tho tough!"

"Okay, Zyx!" Saturn shouted up at him, setting Superman down. "You've proven you're more powerful than all of us! Please, stop!"

"No."

"Alright!" Brainy said, flying around Zyx's ear, leaving Robyn a few feet away at the roof of whatever building he'd set her on. "I concede!" He mumbled something Robyn couldn't hear as Bounce flew up to join him.

"Ah, what was that?" Zyx cupped his ear and leaned close to Brainy with a large, toothy grin.

"It's magic!" Brainy repeated through his teeth.

"Ah, thanks for noticing!" Zyx started stomping.

"Come on, kid!" Bounce glared at him. "Not much of a victory when you've messed with our powers!"

"Oh yeah?" Zyx got close to Bounce's face. "I could beat you at full strength any day!"

"Think so?" Superman shouted. Robyn turned to see him stood up again. "Prove it!" Zyx's hand shot down and grabbed Superman like he had Robyn.

"Okay, I will." Zyx looked around before spotting the arena to his side. He threw Superman inside and poofed into the center of the , now back to his normal size. A bunch of holo-screens of Zyx appeared around the stadium as the group flew up to it, Saturn stopping to grab Robyn on the way up.

"Introducing, the ultimate face off between magic and superpowers!" Zyx's voice echoed around them. "Zyx the magnificent versus Superman!" Zyx cracked his knuckles and zapped Superman, returning his powers, before shape-shifting into an enormous dragon. Both Superman and Zyx flew up into the air. Zyx started to breathe fire and Superman met it with his ice breath.

"What does he think he's doing?" Brainy thought out loud.

"Buying us time." Saturn didn't take her eyes off the fight, only floating down to set Robyn on the roof. In the end, Superman's ice breath won and Zyx was frozen in a thick sphere of ice. Superman started to fly off with him, but Zyx used his fire breath again from the inside to melt the ice, quickly turning into a giant starfish and wrapping around Superman. Zyx suddenly let go with a cry as Superman used his heat vision, falling to the ground and creating a giant puff of dirt. Superman started to fly down to him but got caught in a sudden breeze that dissipated the dirt cloud, caused by Zyx, who had now shape-shifted into a giant old fashioned metal desk fan. Superman tried to use his heat vision again, but Zyx turned into a giant mirror and shot the attack back at him. Superman resorted back to his ice breath but Zyx actually lit himself on fire to counter the attack.

This fight was getting more and more ridiculous by the minute.

"You know what?" Zyx's voice carried across the speakers. "I'm workin too hard." He snapped his fingers and a large statue towards the edge of the field started to glow. It turned its head to look at Superman before walking stiffly towards him. "Let's just give him all of your powers and see what happens." Zyx chuckled.

Another ridiculous battle started up between Superman and the statue while Zyx watched with some popcorn. The others flew down to stand on the roof by Robyn after a few minutes.

"Battling Superman is beginning to strain Zyx's powers to their limit." Robyn turned to see Saturn's eyes glowing.

"If we all attack at once it could push him over." Brainy added.

"So what are we waiting for?" Bounce practically squealed with delight. "Let's bounce this brat!"

"Robyn," Brainy turned to her, slowly floating after the others as they took off towards Zyx. "Until your equipment has come back online I would suggest you-"

"I'm not going to just sit here and watch you guys fight." She grabbed his wrist and pulled him back down to the roof with her. "We just need to distract him. I'm coming with you." He seemed conflicted for a moment before nodding and carrying her down to the field. Bounce inflated and hit Zyx in the back, landing at the same time as Brainy and Robyn started to mess with the control board.

"Let's see just what this stadiums operating system can do." Brainy grinned and turned up the lights as bright as he could just as Zyx was turning around. The kid winced and covered his eyes.

"Agh! I can't see! No fair!" He screeched and started firing at random, trying to hit the light. Brainy pushed a few more buttons on the control panel a bit more and turned all the speakers in Zyx's direction. Bounce quickly ran up to the mic, stuck his thumb in his mouth, and made a fart noise that echoed around the entire stadium.

"Really?" Robyn groaned.

"Couldn't resist." Bounce grinned back at her. Zyx started screaming and firing even more until all the lights and speakers were completely destroyed.

"That's it" Saturn shouted to the group. "Keep him confused! We're wearing him down!" Everyone started to attack Zyx and Robyn heard a familiar hum in her ear.

"Prioritize combat equipment!" She ordered. Some of her devices that had been turning back on, including her personal image inducers, shut back off, and her gloves, goggles, belt, and boots flared to life. Or at least some of their combat features had. She shot a cord at Zyx and sent a shock of electricity through it. He yelped and pulled the cord, swinging her across the stadium. She shot another cord from her glove at the far wall, pulling herself towards it and landing sideways in a crouch against it. She pushed off and launched herself at Zyx, wrapping around him long enough for Lightning to get a good shot on him. He pushed Robyn off and she fell to the ground about as gracefully as a rhinoceros, but relatively unharmed. Superman flew up behind Zyx and hit him in the back, pushing him towards the center of the stadium.

"No Fair!" Zyx shouted before Bounce hit him in the back as well. "Quit ganging up on me!" Lightning got another hit on him. "Quit it! Quit it! Quit it! Quit it!" Zyx suddenly turned himself into a massive bomb, growing to the size of the stadium and exploding. Robyn, tried to get away but started to get caught in the blast. She saw Brainy flying towards cover in front of her. Her back started to feel warm as the blast caught up to her. She quickly shot a chord at a pillar just to the side of Brainy and pulled herself forward, grabbing him as she passed and pulling them both behind the pillar for cover.

Flames licked around the edge of the pillar. Robyn didn't realize how close she held him until he pulled himself away.

"I would have made it." he pouted and looked away. She couldn't help but smile at him.

"No you wouldn't have." her smile only widened when he didn't protest. She gently pushed him towards the others. She leaned her head back against the pillar and took a deep breath.

"Are you okay?" he asked, squinting at her.

"I just need a minute." she nodded. "Go, I'm right behind you." he didn't look convinced, but walked to the others anyway. Once she was sure she was alone she slid to the floor and pulled her knees to her chest. She focused on nothing in particular until her breath evened out before standing to her feet and turning on all her equipment.

When the smoke cleared they all walked into the enter of the arena, surrounding Zyx, now passed out in a massive crater.

"Awe," Bounce cooed. "The little guy wore himself out." Robyn visibly relaxed when her personal image inducers turned back on. The scars on her face melted away and her hair quickly faded back to a dark black.

"So how are we going to clean up his mess?" Superman sighed and turned to the ruined stadium. Robyn couldn't help but wince at the sight of several large pillars of smoke drifting up over the edge of the building.

"I do not want to be here when the science police show up," she groaned. As if on cue, the holes in the ground and the broken equipment started to close and fix themselves. Robyn felt a familiar warp in the energy around her and quickly ducked towards the back of the group.

"It appears that's being taken care of." Brainy glanced over at Robyn as she practically lept behind Superman. There was a loud _poof_ and a cloud of yellow smoke and suddenly the Legion Cruiser was hovering just above the stadium. The panel on the bottom slid open and a short, plump man with a cape twice as long as he was tall, slowly started to descend from it, yellow sparks trailing around his hands. Robyn was clinging tightly to Supermans cape. He'd noticed, and, while he made no move against the man, he had taken another step to his side, blocking her from his view.

The man landed, waving his hands to either side of him, where Phantom and Triplicate appeared, looking startled.

"There," the man almost sang. "Everything just as it was." Brainy extended his arm to tap his shoulder. The man turned as Brainy held up Lightning, still a rat. "Ah, right." another wave of his fingers and Lightning, back to his usual self, fell on his butt. Robyn hid completely behind Superman, resting her head on his shoulder and knotted her hands in his cape, trying to keep her knees from giving out. She was suddenly aware of another ship hovering above the stadium next to the Legion Cruiser, this one even bigger. A smaller ship detached from it and landed next to them.

Phantom's mom, the President of the Galaxy walked up to the strange man, who had trapped a now awake and screaming Zyx in a glowing yellow orb.

"On behalf of the Zeroxian people, I must apologize for the rash actions of an impetuous youth." he started to float closer to the group, and Robyn tensed, basically dragging Superman a step back with her. "I hope this incident will not taint our relations. Your daughters quick thinking and selfless action convinced me the time is ripe for Zerox to establish closer ties to the United Planets." Robyn could feel her heart roaring in her ears.

"Why- Yes!" the President seemed caught off guard. "Yes of course! I agree wholeheartedly!"

"Then it's good to see you again, Winibar," he replied, voice lower and closer than it had been before. "This time under more cordial circumstances."

"Maybe I should ignore your advice more often, mom?" Phantom jumped in, smirk evident in her voice.

"Now, about the terms of your surrender," the man practically purred. Robyn's hands fell from Superman's cape.

She felt dizzy, numb, and not from the magic this time. Surrender? What had happened? What… what had Phantom done? The entire United Planets had surrendered to Zerox? What would happen? Would they start looking for her? Would they send Damien? What were they go-?

"Robyn!" she was pulled, rather suddenly, from her thoughts and looked up. She saw Superman looking down at her with concern, a hand on either of her shoulders. "Robyn what's wrong?" all her senses came rushing back to her and she turned to Phantom. Something that sounded like a growl rose from her throat that had Superman retract his hands before she'd even taken a step forward.

"You surrendered to Zerox?" she yelled. "What were you thinking!?" Phantoms shoulder sagged and she rolled her eyes.

"Look, I'm going to get enough crap from my mom later, can you-"  
"No!" Robyn took a step closer to her, her voice rising even more. "Do you even realize what you've done? I didn't spend the last six years of my life running from them just for you to go and hand the whole damn galaxy over! You were gone for an hour, how did you even accomplish that?! Did you even-?" she stopped herself as she realized what she'd said. The look on Phantoms face and her knowing glances over Robyns shoulder told her the information hadn't gone unnoticed either. Robyn sighed loudly and ran a hand through her hair. "Damnit."

"Robyn," Saturn's voice was slowly moving closer to her.

"Was he the one you're running from?" Superman asked.

"No!" Robyn snapped. "Yes… Kind of…" she turned to look at them, shoulders slumping in defeat. This wouldn't drop without an explanation. "My mother was Zeroxian. I kind of got some of her magic… but in a really weird way, so Zerox's rules didn't really… apply to me. They found out about me I guess I scared them enough to send someone to find us. He took me and my mom to Zerox. They-" she had to take a breath, holding back her tears. "They accused her of treason. Because of me… because they couldn't control me. Kept calling me a… a weapon, like I wasn't even there." realization flashed across all of their faces as they remembered what they'd heard at Quavermast Twelve.

"Robyn, that wasn't your fault," Saturn reached towards her.

"I know," she snapped, standing up straighter. "But it happened, and I have to live with that." she took a deep breath. "Its not Zerox I'm running from. They made it very clear they want nothing to do with me, and I want nothing to do with them. I'm running from who they gave me away to."

"Damien," Brainy finished for her. She nodded and looked at him.

"He didn't work in the United Planets, very rarely at least," she continued. "But he worked for Zerox. Quite often. And because the United Planets just _surrendered_ to Zerox," she turned back to Phantom, making a long, sweeping gesture towards the girl with her arm, but all of her anger had faded, and now she just felt numb. "Well he's always looking to expand his collection."

"I'm sorry Robyn," the younger girl said quietly. "I didn't know."

"How could you have known," Robyn shrugged and let out a nervous laugh at her own lack of foresight. "Not like I gave you a heads up or anything." she laughed again and ran a hand through her hair. "Man, I'm an idiot."

"So the likelihood of him showing his ugly mug went up," Lightning walked towards her, looping an arm over her shoulder. "Big deal! Nothing else has changed. We're still going to kick his ass."

"You said," Brainy started. "You said that you'd gone to others for help before. What happened that made you so afraid for us?"

Memories flashed through Robyn's head.

 _The screams of the townsfolk echoed around her as flames licked at her ankles around her. His betrayed eyes looked up at her tears streaming down his face as she pushed the blade further into his stomach. She heard his laughter,_ Damien's _laughter as he let her take control again. Some sort of sick joke. His eyes closed and she carefully guided his head to the floor. She remembered the searing pain that shot through her entire body as she finally managed to break the device under her skin._

"It won't happen again," _She remembered his bright eyes, his smile, and his hand, reaching out to a smaller version of herself._ "I made sure he could never do that to anyone else."

* * *

 **I am so sorry this took me so long, Life's been busier than I thought it would be, but I think I'm finally starting to settle into a schedule now, and I'm hoping I can get chapters out Semi regularly. I've realized that commiting to a set schedule just isn't realistic right now, but I'm really going to try and get them out faster, I promise.**

 **Thank you all for sticking with this story, it means the world to me.**

 **I hope you enjoyed Child's Play, one more chapter and this will officially be caught up with the original! And then its all new content from there, which I'm incredibly excited about c;**

 **Love you guys,**

 **~C.J.**


	14. AN - The Future of QOT

AN - The Future of Q.O.T.

Hello everyone, Kay here. I would like to start with an apology, life has gotten away from me again and this story has fallen back on my priorities.

As of right now, I am planning on there being 7 more chapters to this story. What I planned on doing for the next two stories was writing them in their entirety and then uploading them on a regular basis, and that is what I have decided to do with the remainder of this story as well. There is going to probably be a pretty long wait for the rest of this story now, but I want you all to know what I am still working on it, and the next time I upload you will get a chapter a week until the end of the story, and while those chapters are going up I will be starting work on the next section of Robyns story as well.

Thank you all so much for your patience, and I'm so sorry again.

~Kay (C.J.)


	15. AN - I am so sorry

Please let me start by apologizing once again for how long I have been away from this story.

I know I say this every time, but a lot has been going on in my life and I made the decision to focus on an original story of mine as my only writing project to work on actively as of my last update to this story.

I have now worked myself up over said project so much that I am afraid to touch it in case it is not perfect. In order to alleviate some of the stress and anxiety I caused myself to feel in relation to writing, I am taking many steps back from that story and am working on other projects now. I have another original story that I plan to work on for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this November, and then after that I plan on focusing on editing that and also working on Queen of Thieves.

In regards to this story specifically, the next version of this story, which will be titled "Queen of Thieves: Third Times the Charm" will be the _last_ version of this. I can promise this because I plan to have _at least_ all of Q.O.T. written, and, depending on how that goes, the following two stories, by the time I start uploading them. Because of that reason, it will probably be a while before I post anything from that but I plan to post an update when/if what I am working on for NaNoWriMo gets published, if any of you are interested in that. After November though, I plan to focus primarily on Robyn and her story, if for nothing else then to work out all of my anxiety towards writing. I love writing, and I love storytelling, and I'm sorry to all of you and myself that I've let myself get so far away from it.

I want to thank all of you for the continued love and support you've given to the last two versions of this story, and I'm sorry that I've made you wait so long for a conclusion. Thank you all for your patience, and a MASSIVE thank you to anyone who sticks around to read my next, AND FINAL, attempt.

Love you all,

~C.J. (Kay)


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